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US officials say Cuba has completed the release of 53 political prisoners agreed as part of last month’s historic deal between the two countries.The US said it had verified the release of the 53, which it welcomed as a “very positive development”.

However, the US said the release did “not resolve the larger human rights problems on the island”.

Last month, the two countries said they would restore diplomatic relations severed since 1961.

The thaw was announced in simultaneous televised speeches by President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro.

The deal also included the release of US contractor Alan Gross from a Cuban jail, and the freeing of three Cuban secret agents from prison in the US.

The US has not yet disclosed the identities of the 53 Cuban prisoners released over the past days.

But US officials told Reuters news agency the White House would provide the names of all 53 to Congress and expects lawmakers to make them public.

They are believed to be activists who were detained by the Cuban authorities for promoting social and political reforms on the Communist-run island.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Powers said that “welcome as that step is, and heartening as it is for their families, it does not resolve the    larger human rights problem on the   island”.

US officials said the Obama administration would continue to seek the release of other Cuban political prisoners still in jail.

“This list of 53 is not to be seen as the end of our discussion on human rights with the government of Cuba,” state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Berta Soler, who leads Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, asked the US government to keep up the pressure on the Cuban authorities.

“If they are not asked for anything specific in exchange for dialogue the government is going to keep doing whatever it pleases,” she said.

The topic is expected to be raised at high-level talks between the US and Cuba on January 21 and 22, when US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson will  lead a delegation to the Cuban capital, Havana.

The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba dissident group, Jose Daniel Ferrer, said he hoped the US would “demand specific human rights changes”. —  BBC.