WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama  plans to abolish restrictions on family travel and remittances  to Cuba, fulfilling a campaign promise, the Wall Street Journal  reported yesterday.

Obama does not intend to call for lifting the longstanding  trade embargo against Cuba, which would require congressional  action, the Journal said, citing an unidentified administration  official.

The Obama administration is not considering any specific  diplomatic outreach toward Cuba’s communist government, the  newspaper reported.

The removal of limits on family travel and cash remittances  would allow Cuban Americans and Cuban emigres living in the  United States to travel freely to the island, instead of once a  year at present, and remove the ceiling of $1,200 per person in  cash remittances to family members in Cuba.

The U.S. president has authority to loosen these rules on  his own, and the move is likely meant as a signal of a new  attitude toward both Cuba and other Latin American countries  that have pressed the United States to alter its policy, the  Journal said.

Obama will meet with Latin American leaders at a  hemispheric summit this month in Trinidad and Tobago.

The U.S. Congress is currently considering bills that would  lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba that was  introduced with other sanctions in the early 1960s when Fidel  Castro’s revolution turned Cuba into a Soviet ally.