Donald Trump threatens to terminate US-Cuba relations thaw in wake of Fidel Castro's death

President-elect Donald Trump has said he will end the thaw in relations between the US and Cuba unless the Cuban government offers a "better deal". The diplomatic relationship between the two countries began to thaw after outgoing US president Barack Obama reached out to the communist government in Havana, culminating in a historic visit in March this year.

His visit was the first by a sitting US president to visit since the 1959 revolution, which led to decades of hostility between Havana and Washington. Now as millions on the Caribbean island mourn the death of their former leader Fidel Castro, Trump says that a new deal may need to be negotiated.

He tweeted: "If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal."

Castro died on Friday and citizens of the island have gathered in Havana's Revolution Square to commemorate the revolutionary. Foreign leaders, not including Jeremy Corbyn who praised Castro after his death, are due to arrive in Cuba over the next few days.

Trump released a statement following his death calling Castro, who died aged 90, "a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades". He added: "Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.

"While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve."

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over the running of the country as Fidel's health declined, attended a baseball game together in Havana in March 2016. But Trump has repeatedly criticised Obama for giving too much in the deal with Havana without receiving enough in return.

In other commemorations, a cortege will transport Fidel's ashes across the island to Santiago de Cuba, reversing the route the iconic leader took when he defeated Fulgencio Batista's regime in 1959. He will then be laid to rest on Sunday in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery.