US and Cuban officials met Monday in Havana for new talks on restoring diplomatic ties, but their historic rapprochement was strained by tensions over Venezuela.

US and Cuban officials met Monday in Havana for new talks on restoring diplomatic ties, but their historic rapprochement was strained by tensions over Venezuela.

The top US diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, met her Cuban counterpart Josefina Vidal behind closed doors for a third round of talks on normalizing relations, but the atmosphere of reconciliation was marred by protests over Washington's stance on Venezuela.

As Jacobson touched down in the Cuban capital late Sunday, thousands of people attended a concert and rally to "support the Bolivarian (Venezuelan) people and government" in their mounting row with the United States.

US relations with Venezuela, a key Cuban ally, have been on a downward spiral since President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington in February of sponsoring a coup attempt against him - a claim Washington denies.

Unlike the previous two rounds of talks held since the historic US-Cuban rapprochement was announced on December 17, no press conference was scheduled for this week's meetings between Jacobson and Vidal, Cuba's top diplomat on US affairs.

The two sides are next due to meet in late March, when they will address the delicate issue of human rights for the first time.

The United States severed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 and continued to isolate the country, the only communist regime in the Americas, even after the Cold War ended.