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Saturday December 20, 2014 03:12 PM

By Tim Johnson, McClatchy Foreign Staff (TNS)

HAVANA Cuban President Raul Castro said Saturday that Cuba would not renounce its core socialist ideals as part of a deal he struck this week with President Barack Obama to renew diplomatic relations after more than five decades.

Castro, speaking at a session of the National Assembly, praised Obama, highlighted the profound political differences that still divide Cuba and the United States, and noted that normalization would not come quickly.

An important step was taken, but the most essential part is still pending, which is the end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo of Cuba, Castro said.

Earlier in his speech, the Cuban leader said that the economy lurched along with 1.4 percent growth in 2014 and pledged new steps to promote a nascent private sector in Cuba, one of the worlds last socialist holdouts.

But he said change would come slowly.

This will be a long and difficult struggle, Castro told the assembly.

He praised Obama, the Vatican and Canada for their roles in hosting secret talks that led to Wednesdays surprise announcement of a breakthrough that could ease the greatest lingering source of tension in the Western Hemisphere.

I salute the proposal of President Obama to open a new chapter in the relations between our two nations and to introduce the most significant change in policies of the United States in the past 50 years, Castro said. We are not unaware of the virulent criticism that President Obama has had to endure from the forces opposed to the normalization of relations with Cuba because of this announcement. They will do all they can to sabotage this process.

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Cuban president praises new US ties, but wont abandon socialism