WASHINGTON — A human rights group is asking President-elect Barack Obama to end immediately a ban on most American travel to Cuba.

The nonpartisan Freedom House made the public recommendation Wednesday even as it sharply criticized Cuba's human rights record and said Raul Castro had made only "nominal reforms" since succeeding his brother Fidel as Cuba's president last February.

In his presidential campaign Obama proposed easing restrictions on family-related travel and said he was open to meeting Raul Castro without preconditions.

He also called for easing economic sanctions against Cuba, first imposed in 1960, if Havana "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."

Current U.S. sanctions limit trade with Cuba to cash-only sale of U.S. farm products and medical supplies. Freedom House asked Obama to re-examine the embargo.

Ending the travel ban would expose Cubans to information about the outside world, Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, said in a statement. She also called Cuba one of the most repressive countries in the world.

Next week, Cuba is due for harsh criticism in an annual Freedom House report on human rights worldwide.

The travel ban was imposed by President John F. Kennedy a year after the crisis over the presence of Russian missiles in Cuba. President Jimmy Carter let the ban lapse in 1977, but President Ronald Reagan reimposed it in 1982.

Violators could face criminal penalties of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison.

Freedom House noted in its statement that the United States does not impose similar travel sanctions on Americans going to other countries with low freedom ratings, including Burma, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Freedom House, founded in 1941, is an independent, non-governmental organization that supports expansion of democracy, in the world. It began monitoring the performance of governments worldwide in 1972.