Cuba will make it easier for its U.S.-based citizens to travel to the island, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Saturday, in a gesture to win support from Cuban-Americans during a diplomatic crisis over allegations of mysterious health attacks.

"The U.S. government closes, and Cuba opens," Rodriguez told a meeting of pro-Havana Cuban-Americans in Washington.

He said Cuban citizens in the United States would no longer need to have a special review of their Cuban passports to rehabilitate them before traveling to the island.