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Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama prodded Congress to eliminate the United States' decades-old Cuba embargo Friday, saying that improving relations with the communist country will help open its "hermetically sealed society" -- even if changes come in "fits and starts."

He said he doesn't expect lawmakers to strip the embargo away immediately, and that Congress will need time to digest a deal he struck this week to free American contractor Alan Gross, trade imprisoned spies and ease U.S. economic restrictions on Cuba in exchange for the release of dozens of political prisoners and expanded Internet there.

His comments came during a feisty year-end news conference Friday, just hours before Obama and his family boarded Air Force One for a holiday vacation in Hawaii.

"I don't anticipate overnight changes. But what I know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome, and this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome, because suddenly Cuba is open to the world in ways that it has not been before," Obama said.

"The more the Cuban people see what's possible, the more interested they are going to be in change. But how societies change is country-specific. It's culture-specific," he said.

Obama offered some notes of caution, saying a presidential visit Cuba or Cuban President Raul Castro coming to the United States isn't "in the cards."

His moves have already triggered controversy among potential Republican 2016 presidential contenders. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who accused Obama of giving up leverage, is sparring with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who advocates a smaller U.S. footprint overseas.

Obama said he expects a "healthy debate" to rage in Congress.

"I think that ultimately we need to go ahead and pull down the embargo, which I think has been self-defeating in advancing the aims that we're interested in," Obama said. "But I don't anticipate that that happens right away."

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