The United States Congress is debating a proposal to lift the travel ban to Cuba, almost half a century after the US isolated itself from the communist country.

Richard Lugar, a Republican senator, and Howard Berman, a Democratic senator, said in a statement on Thursday: "It’s time for us to scrap this anachronistic ban, imposed during one of the chilliest periods of the Cold War."

Cuba is the only country to which the US has implemented a travel ban.