WASHINGTON, Oct 10: US President George Bush on Friday denounced “repression” by Cuba’s veteran leader, Fidel Castro, and moved to tighten US sanctions on the communist island.

In remarks coinciding with a major anniversary of Cuba’s independence fight, Mr Bush said restrictions on travel to Cuba by US citizens would be more strongly enforced and that the United States would increase the number of immigrant visas for Cubans it hands out.

Highlighting US efforts to persuade Mr Castro to hold “free and fair elections”, Mr Bush said: “The dictator has responded with defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the world’s conscience.”

He said the only communist government in the Americas “will not change by its own choice. But Cuba must change”.

Cuba has been widely criticized for a crackdown on dissidents that saw 75 Castro opponents jailed for up to 28 years in April. And Mr Bush has faced increasing pressure from the Cuban-American community to take tougher measures.

A group of top officials and lawmakers, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and many Cuban-Americans, gathered at the White House for the speech on the day Cuba celebrates the 1868 start of its quest for independence from Spain.—AFP