Cuba's foreign minister has held a meeting with a senior US official - in one of the highest level contacts between the two countries for years, BBC reported.
US officials said the minister, Bruno Rodriguez, on Wednesday met Cheryl Mills, the chief of staff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The talks were held at a UN forum on aid for quake-hit Haiti in New York.
A spokesman said the US did not agree "with Cuba on very much", but they both agreed on the need for aid to Haiti.
Cuba confirmed that the meeting took place.
"We would hope that future exchanges of this nature are a possibility," Havana said in a statement.
Details of the meeting have not been made public.
Relations between Washington and the Communist government in Havana have soured in recent months after early expectations of an improvement under the Barack Obama administration.