U.S. calls for release of jailed contractor in Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. negotiators called for the immediate release of an American contractor jailed in Havana, during talks on Friday with Cuban officials about migration issues, a U.S. State Department spokesman said in a statement.

Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley did not say how Cuban negotiators responded. In its own statement about the talks, Cuba did not mention the request or the contractor.

It said the talks were held in an "atmosphere of respect" and Cuba would be willing to meet again.

Alan Gross, 60, has been held by Cuban authorities since early December on suspicion of providing illegal satellite communications equipment to Cuban dissidents.

His wife, Judy Gross, issued a plea on Thursday from their home in Potomac, Maryland, for the two countries to resolve the case at Friday's meeting and free her husband of 40 years.

Cuban officials accuse Gross of working for U.S. "secret services" in what they see as a continuation of longstanding U.S. policy to subvert Cuba's communist government.

The United States has said Gross was not a spy. His wife said he was in Cuba setting up Internet connectivity for Jewish groups. He has not been charged with a crime, but the case remains under investigation.

Gross could face up a stiff prison sentence if convicted of bringing in satellite equipment, which is tightly controlled in communist-led Cuba.

The session in Havana, held at an undisclosed location, was the second round of migration talks since the once-ongoing discussions were renewed last summer after their cancellation in 2004 by President George W. Bush.

The talks centered around a 1995 agreement aimed at preventing a mass exodus of Cubans by sea to the United States as occurred in the 1980 Mariel boatlift and again in 1994.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Todd Eastham)