Will not hand Guantanamo back to Cuba: US

Efforts to improve ties with Cuba will not extend to handing control of Guantanamo Bay back to Havana, the White House said on Thursday.

"The president does believe that the prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed down," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "But the naval base is not something that we wish to be closed."

The base, on Cuba's southeastern tip, is currently the site of a large naval base as well as a deeply controversial prison used to detain terror suspects without trial.

Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday said handing back control of the 45 square mile site was a precondition for normalizing ties with the United States.

Castro and Obama simultaneously announced on December 17 their intention to end a half-century of animosity and normalize ties that broke off in 1961.