Cuba, which has been importing food like rice and chicken from the United States since 2000, said that US is delaying payment procedures introduced by the Bush administration in 2005 were hindering trade and forcing it to make deals with other countries.

Since 2000, cash-only food sales were permitted as a exception to the U.S. trade embargo, turning Cuba's ideological foe into its top foreign supplier.

Cuba's food import agency, Alimport, this week signed new contracts worth $60 million with a delegation from the U.S. state of Nebraska, to import mainly wheat, pork and soy beans.