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 Obama, who announced on Wednesday that Washington was restoring
diplomatic relations with Havana, said the historic end of decades
of hostility between the two countries would not bring quick changes
but ultimately would lead to greater freedom for the Cuban people.
"What I know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing
for 50 years and nothing has changed you should try something
different," Obama told reporters in an end-of-year news conference,
referring to Washington's longheld policy of trying to force Cuba to
change by isolating it.
"This gives us an opportunity for a different outcome," he said.
"Because suddenly, Cuba is open to the world in ways that it has not
been before."
In addition to announcing the United States will reestablish
diplomatic relations with Cuba, Obama also said on Wednesday his
administration will undertake a series of measures to ease
restrictions on commerce, transportation and banking.
 But the biggest obstacle to normal ties with Cuba is a more than
50-year economic embargo that is enshrined in law, most notably in
the Helms-Burton act passed in 1996, and that would have to be
lifted by Congress.
Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress in January
after their midterm election gains last month, have vowed to block
any effort to ease the embargo and say they will try to slow the
normalization by blocking funds for an embassy and the confirmation
of an ambassador.
Obama said he would be willing to weigh in with Congress but he
expected the debate over ending the embargo would unfold over time.
"I think that ultimately we need to go ahead and pull down the
embargo, which I think has been self-defeating in advancing the aims
that we're interested in. But I don't anticipate that that happens
right away," he said.
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"I think people are going to want to see how does this move forward
before there's any serious debate about whether or not we would make
major shifts in the embargo."
Critics of Obama's policy shift say he is rewarding President Raul
Castro even though Cuba's one-party system remains in place.
NO PRESIDENTIAL VISITS YET
Obama said better relations with Cuba would not lead to an overnight
improvement in Havana's human rights record, or to a presidential
visit to Cuba, or an invitation to Castro to visit Washington.
But over time, he said, normalizing relations "chips away at this
hermetically sealed society, and I believe offers the best prospect
then, of leading to greater freedom, greater self-determination on
the part of the Cuban people."
While Cuba and the United States will still have differences that
will strain the relationship, Washington will now be able to talk to
Havana, he said.
"The whole point of normalizing relations is that it gives us a
greater opportunity to have influence with that government," he
said.
Obama, 53, said he was a young man so "I imagine at some point in my
life I will have a chance to visit Cuba."
(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Writing by John
Whitesides; Editing by Chris Reese)
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