HAVANA: US officials expressed hope that high-level migration talks with Cuba on Friday would yield "positive results," but also demanded that Havana release an American consultant held here since December.

The most senior US delegation to the communist-ruled island in years sought to advance progress on US-Cuba Migration Accords in the second round of talks on the contentious issue in the past year.

"In the course of the meeting, the US team... reaffirmed the US commitment to promote safe, orderly, and legal migration," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a measured statement released by the US Interests Section, Washington's mission to the communist-ruled country.

The US delegation, led by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, "highlighted areas of successful cooperation in migration, while also identifying issues that have been obstacles to the full implementation of the accords," Crowley added.

The talks were "conducted in a respectful environment," said a joint statement released by the Cuban delegation, which was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez.

"The meeting reaffirmed the importance and usefulness of this method" of consultation, Rodriguez said after the meeting, according to the statement.

The two sides discussed what Crowley described as "longstanding US priorities on Cuba migration issues," including Havana's assurances that the US mission can "operate fully and effectively" and to monitor the welfare of repatriated migrants.

Crowley said "the United States views these talks as an avenue to achieve practical, positive results that contribute to the full implementation of the accords and to the safety of citizens of both countries."

US President Barack Obama's administration last year resumed talks on migration with Cuba that had been conducted every two years until his predecessor George W. Bush suspended them in 2003.

A senior US diplomat, Bisa Williams, traveled to Havana in September to meet with Cuban officials and discuss another prospect for improving relations -- resuming direct mail service that had been suspended between the two countries since 1963.

Cuba's government has a longstanding interest in migration dialogue with the United States as it seeks to stem persistent illegal US-bound emigration of its nationals across the shark-infested Florida Straits.

Obama took office last year with a mission of reaching out to adversaries like Cuba. The United States broke off relations with the communist island in 1961.

The Obama administration has lifted travel and money transfer restrictions on Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba, but it has urged Havana to free political prisoners and improve political freedoms.

On Friday, the US delegation called for the "immediate release" of a US citizen detained in Cuba since December 4.

The US government has identified the prisoner as Alan Gross, a 60-year-old government contractor with Development Alternatives Inc who was seeking to help Jewish groups communicate with people outside the country by distributing mobile phones and computers.

Havana has slammed him as a US spy seeking to harm the communist regime.