HAVANA (Reuters) -- Spain's foreign minister met with Cuban President Raul Castro on Monday and said the communist leader affirmed his commitment to economic reform and expressed his desire to continue improving relations with the United States.

Castro also promised to pay about $450 million in back payments to Spanish companies doing business on the cash-strapped Caribbean island, said Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Moratinos said Castro told him during a 2007 visit of his plans to reform Cuba's state-dominated economy and repeated his commitment to change on Monday.
“I have found in President Castro a commitment to reform, to advance the process of reform in the whole country, to improve the economic situation of Cuba,” he said. “Today he reiterated his will to continue the process.”
Since replacing his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president last year, Raul Castro has initiated a handful of reforms aimed at making Cuba's economy more productive but has been criticized for moving too slowly.
Moratinos said Castro had good words about U.S. President Barack Obama and was pleased at recent Obama-initiated talks on migration issues and the possible resumption of direct U.S-Cuba mail service broken off since 1963.
“They hope to be able to improve ... relations with the United States,” Moratinos said of the Cubans.
He said Castro “had personally committed and given instructions” that Spanish companies awaiting payments for about $450 million in goods and services would be paid.