(MENAFN- AFP) Japanese business interest in Cuba is likely to intensify because of the thaw in US-Cuban relations, Japan's foreign minister said in an interview published Thursday.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was to arrive in Havana Thursday for a visit that is scheduled to include a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez.

Kishida said Japan "supports and welcomes" the start of negotiations between Washington and Havana, which he said would "positively influence relations with Japan."

"Taking into account the improvement in relations between Cuba and the United States, not only the government but Japanese companies will further increase the interest in Cuba," he said in the interview with Granma, the official Communist Party newspaper.

Cuba has been actively courting foreign investment to spur the island's growth, which has remained sluggish despite reforms aimed at a gradual opening of the economy after decades of Soviet-style policies.

In the most dramatic development to date, Cuba's President Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama announced on December 17 they would open talks to restore diplomatic relations severed more than 50 years ago.

The United States has since eased some travel and trade restrictions, but lifting a US embargo in place since 1962 requires action by the Republican-controlled US Congress.

Cuba has long blamed the embargo for its economic ills.