CUBAN President Raul Castro has reiterated his people’s demand for an end to the illegal 55-year US blockade.

The revolutionary leader spoke on Monday alongside US President Barack Obama following their historic one-on-one meeting.

“The blockade is the most significant impediment for the development of the Cuban people,” he said. “That is why its elimination is essential for the normalisation of relations.”

While accepting that there were “profound differences” between the two countries, Mr Castro expressed optimism for the new climate of detente between the two countries since the release of the Miami Five political prisoners from US jails in December 2014.

“We have started to take steps to build a relationship of a new kind, one that has never existed before between Cuba and the United States,” he said.

“We must practice the art of civilised co-existence, which means accepting and respecting differences.”

When a US reporter asked about political prisoners in Cuba, Mr Castro challenged the journalist to identify any.

“What political prisoners? Give me a name or names,” he said. “They will be released before tonight ends.”

Asked whether he favoured Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as the next US president, Mr Castro just smiled and said: “I cannot vote in the United States.”

Mr Obama was due to meet Cuban dissidents later yesterday, where he was expected to lecture his hosts on human rights — after failing to honour his 2008 election pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp on occupied Cuban territory.

“We’ll speak out on behalf of universal human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly and religion,” he blustered on Monday.

Mr Castro hit back, saying: “We oppose the double standard on human rights.”

Famed Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez wrote on his blog: “It is commonly forgotten that this terrible dispute began because our neighbours could not stand the fact that we decided what to do in our own home.”

He said the US was “accustomed to having whatever they wanted happen here,” and “they not only denied us speech but made war on us.”