President Barack Obama told Congress on Tuesday he intends to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, clearing the way for restoring diplomatic relations and reopening embassies shut for more than half a century.

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sat down at a Western Hemisphere summit in Panama on Saturday for the first meeting of its kind between U.S. and Cuban leaders in nearly 60 years.

Cuba's communist government had flatly demanded removal from the U.S. blacklist as a condition for normal relations between the two former Cold War foes. Obama ordered a review of Cuba's status after he and Castro announced a diplomatic breakthrough on Dec. 17.