HAVANA, Cuba?African Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer called on United States President Barack Obama's administration to end the decades-old trade embargo and other sanctions on Cuba, in an interview published Sunday.

"I have something to condemn: The United States has to lift all types of sanctions and boycotts against Cuba, whether they are economic or of another nature," Gordimer said in comments published in Spanish in the La Jiribilla online magazine.

The South African writer and political activist, who has in the past defended the communist island, is invited to Havana's International Book Fair, which opens on Thursday.

The US economic, trade, and financial sanctions were imposed 48 years ago following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the Caribbean island-nation by US-backed Cuban exiles.

Since taking office in January, Obama has moved to ease tensions with small steps such as relaxing rules on visits and money transfers to the island.

But so far, the US administration has not taken major strides in its approach to the Americas' only communist regime.