Cuba demanded on Thursday an immediate removal from the list of countries designated by the United States as "state sponsor of terrorism", RIA Novosti reported.
In its annual report on global terrorism published earlier on Thursday, the U.S. State Department left unchanged "terrorism sponsor" designation for Cuba, along with Iran, Sudan and Syria.
"We categorically reject the decision of the U.S. State Department to again include Cuba on its list of countries supporting terrorism and we demand our country be immediately excluded [from the list]," said Josefina Vidal, the head of the North America Department at Cuba's Foreign Ministry.
"Yet again, the United States raises doubts about its commitment to fighting international terrorism and maintains one of the most irrational aspects of its hostile policy toward Cuba," Vidal said in a statement.
U.S.-Cuba relations have been sour since the 1959 Cuban communist revolution. The history of Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism" didn't begin until 1982, though, when the State department placed the Caribbean island country for the first time on its list of those believed to be providing critical support to terrorist groups.
Despite U.S. President Barack Obama's declared aim of "recasting" relations with Cuba, Washington claims that the government of Cuba provides safe haven to members of Spain's separatist group ETA, and Colombian leftist militant groups FARC and ELN.
The United States considers all three groups as terrorist organizations.