Obama and Castro in historic US-Cuba meeting

US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have met on the fringes of the Summit of the Americas, the first formal talks between the two countries' leaders in half a century.

Earlier, Mr Obama described the historic thaw in US-Cuba relations as a "turning point".
This is their first full meeting since the thaw began in December.
Mr Castro has called for the lifting of the US economic blockade on Cuba, in place since 1959.

Sensitive issues

President Obama said that
it was time to "try something new" and that it was important for the US to engage more directly with the Cuban government and the Cuban people.
He added that over time it would be possible to "turn the page" on old divisions but he acknowledged that there were still significant differences.
"We have both concluded that we can disagree with a spirit of respect and civility."
Mr Obama said that immediate tasks include normalising diplomatic relationships between the two countries and opening a US embassy in Havana and a Cuban embassy in Washington DC.
Mr Castro said that he was ready to talk about sensitive issues but that patience would be needed.
"We are willing to make progress in the way the president has described," he said.

At the scene - Vanessa Buschschluter, BBC News, Panama City

This was Cuba's first time at a Summit of the Americas and Raul Castro certainly made the most of the stage he was offered.
He joked that as he had missed the previous six summits, he would multiply the eight minutes he had been allotted for his speech by as much.
In the end, he was not far off that length.
He began with a passionate history lesson, recounting the revolution and the many US attempts to overthrow and destabilise the Communist government.
But he then apologised to President Obama, saying that he could not be blamed for events which predated his presidency and called the US leader "an honest man".
President Obama, for his part, said he did not want to be "imprisoned" by history but would look towards the future - a future in which considerable differences between the US and Cuba would persist, he said, but in which he would not be caught up in ideology.