HAVANA: Cuba's communist interim leader Raul Castro, in a shift from the tack of his ailing brother Fidel Castro, on Saturday pushed for negotiations with the United States to end decades of tense ties.       

 

"Of course, that is, as long as they accept that we are a country that does not tolerate any reduction of its independence, and based on the principles of equality, reciprocity, non interference and mutual respect," Raul Castro told troops at Cuba's first military parade in a decade.         

 

"Until that happens, after almost half a century, we are prepared to wait patiently for the moment when common sense takes root in the halls of power in Washington," added Raul Castro.      

 

Raul Castro has been filling in for his brother Fidel, 80, since Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery in July.      

 

His tone, however, did not reflect a change in Cuba's defiant everyday anti-US rhetoric.   

Raul Castro said the United States was "at a crossroads, with no way out" in its war in Iraq, and that its war on terror on a global level was "marching toward a humiliating defeat."