DEMOCRATIC and Republican members of Congress were set to join forces overnight in support of a bill to end the decades-old ban on US citizens travelling to Cuba, a move that could mark the beginning of a thaw in Washington-Havana relations.
Two of the bill's sponsors, a Democrat House member from Massachusetts, Bill Delahunt, and Arizona House Republican Jeff Flake, will introduce it at a press conference and is co-sponsored by 118 other House members.
Sarah Stephens, director of the Centre for Democracy in the Americas, which has been campaigning for normalisation of relations, said that US tourists could be on Cuban beaches within the next few years.
"This policy is the last surviving remnant of the Cold War and like the Berlin Wall, it is long past time to dismantle it," she said.
The US has had sanctions on travel and trade against Cuba since 1962, three years after Fidel Castro took power.
The US argument was that denying Cuba revenue from trade and tourism would undermine its communist government.
In recent years, former US president George Bush tightened the sanctions, with new restrictions on family travel for Cuban-Americans.
His successor, Barack Obama, has ordered a review of Cuba policy, but in the meantime has in effect reversed the Bush administration changes by removing funding for enforcement of the ban on Cuban-American family travel.
In a letter to Mr Obama, Republican senator Richard Lugar called on him to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks and to end US opposition to Cuba's membership in the Organisation of American States.
Senator Lugar said the April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago would present a "unique opportunity" to end the US embargo.
Americans face a $US7000 ($A9948) fine if they travel to Cuba, although exemptions are made for journalists and academics who request special permission from the State Department. A similar bill was announced at a Senate press conference on Tuesday.
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