WASHINGTON (AFP) – A senior US diplomat met Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in New York last month to urge Cuba to release an American contractor held on suspicion of espionage, a US official said Monday. Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, appealed for the release of Alan Gross when he talked with Rodriguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.">WASHINGTON (AFP) – A senior US diplomat met Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in New York last month to urge Cuba to release an American contractor held on suspicion of espionage, a US official said Monday. Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, appealed for the release of Alan Gross when he talked with Rodriguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.">

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US says it urged Cuba to release American contractor

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A senior US diplomat met Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in New York last month to urge Cuba to release an American contractor held on suspicion of espionage, a US official said Monday.

Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, appealed for the release of Alan Gross when he talked with Rodriguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

"The meeting was to encourage the release of Alan Gross. Unfortunately that has not yet happened," Crowley told reporters.

Gross was detained on the island reportedly while distributing cell phones, laptops and other communications equipment in Cuba.

Cuba believes Gross is a spy. Rodriguez said in June he was being held for "committing grave offenses in our country at the service of the subversive policy of the government of the United States against Cuba."

US officials say Gross worked for a non-government organization contracted by the State Department to supply computer and communications material to civil society groups in Cuba.

Crowley did not answer directly when asked whether the US government had any more reason to hope that Gross would be released soon.

"We would hope that it would happen today, but that's up to the Cuban government," he said.

The United States and Cuba have not had formal diplomatic ties since 1961, although Washington is represented by a US interest section in Havana.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101018/

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