Republican White House hopeful John McCain Tuesday savaged Democratic rival Barack Obama's stance on Cuba, vowing himself to maintain the US trade embargo until democracy comes to the communist island.
McCain, in a speech in Florida to mark Cuba's independence day, stepped up a bruising offensive on Obama's foreign policy goals as the Democrat looked to capture his party's White House nomination from Hillary Clinton.
The Republican said the transition of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul had been accompanied by media talk of reforms by Cuba's communist leadership.
"Such characterizations must sound quite cynical to the political prisoners that fill Cuban jails, to the millions who suffer under poverty and repression, and to all those who wish to choose their leaders, not suffer under them.
"Yet tyranny will not forever endure, and as president, I will not passively await the day when the Cuban people enjoy the blessings of freedom and democracy," McCain said.
Anticipating a general election faceoff with Obama, McCain has been portraying the Democrat's foreign policy as naive and dangerous. On Monday the Republican accused him of a "reckless" misreading of the threat from Iran.
Obama's policy of offering talks with the Cuban regime and easing some US trade restrictions "would send the worst possible signal to Cuba's dictators," McCain said in his speech.
Such an approach would signal that "there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in US policy."
McCain vowed instead to press for the release of all political prisoners, for legalized political parties, labor unions and a free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections in Cuba.
"The embargo must stay in place until these basic elements of democratic society are met," he said.
Cuban exiles have traditionally been a safe vote for Republican presidential candidates in the key battleground state of Florida.
But Obama's call for lifting parts of the five-decade-old sanctions against Cuba has drawn some support, amid frustration over travel and money transfer restrictions imposed by President George W. Bush in 2004.
The Illinois senator, who has called US policy on Cuba a "failure," proposes lifting the travel and remittance restrictions as a first step toward transforming relations with Cuba.
