The highest-level U.S. delegation to Cuba in 35 years began talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations and eventually opening up full trade and travel ties between two adversaries locked in Cold War-era hostilities. The two days of meetings are the first since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they had reached a historic breakthrough after 18 months of secret negotiations. Obama has set the United States on a path toward removing economic sanctions and a 53-year-old trade embargo against the communist-ruled island. "We are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new," he told Congress in his annual State of the Union address. He also urged Congress to start work on ending the embargo but critics at home say Obama first needs to win concessions from Cuba's communist government on political prisoners and democratic rights, the claims of U.S. citizens whose property was nationalized after Cuba's 1959 revolution, and U.S. fugitives who have been given asylum in Cuba. "After five decades of authoritarian, one-party rule, we must recognize that the Castros will never relax their iron-fisted control over Cuba unless compelled to do so," Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and Cuban-American, said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. "As the administration pursues further engagement with Cuba, I urge you to link the pace of changes in U.S. policy to reciprocal action from the Castro regime." Talks will focus on immigration issues on Wednesday and turn to restoring diplomatic ties on Thursday. Both sides are also expected to outline longer-term goals. While Cuba will seek the repeal of the economic embargo and ask to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, the U.S. government will press the one-party state for greater human rights. Anticipating that the U.S. delegation will raise human rights issues, a senior Cuban foreign ministry official told reporters on Tuesday that Havana had concerns about human rights in the United States, citing the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police in New York and Ferguson, Missouri. Cuba has also said it will protest U.S. laws that welcome Cubans into the United States once they set foot on U.S. soil, a policy exception that Cuba says promotes people-trafficking and dangerous journeys across the Florida Straits on flimsy vessels. Obama has the executive authority to restore diplomatic ties and lift sanctions but needs the Republican-controlled Congress to repeal the economic embargo. The senior Cuban foreign ministry official drew a distinction between restoring diplomatic ties and the broader issue of normalizing relations. "Cuba isn't normalizing relations with the United States. Cuba is re-establishing diplomatic relations with the United States. The normalization of relations is a much longer process and much more complicated process," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. delegation is led by Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America and the first U.S. assistant secretary of state to visit Cuba in 38 years. A U.S. official of similar rank visited Cuba 35 years ago. Cuba's team is led by Josefina Vidal, its chief diplomat for U.S. affairs. (Reuters)