HAVANA - A top Cuban official said Friday that Raul Castro's government would consider loosening Internet restrictions on ordinary citizens newly allowed to purchase computers -- but Washington's decades-old economic embargo makes it impossible.

"We aren't worried about the citizenry connecting from their homes," Telecommunications Vice Minister Boris Moreno told a small group of reporters.

"But problems with technology and resources have made it necessary to give priority to connections that guarantee the country's social and economic development," he said, referring to an islandwide network that lets Cubans receive e-mail and view domestic Web sites.

The rest of the World Wide Web is blocked to most citizens in Cuba, which has access controls far stricter than in China or Saudi Arabia. Only foreigners and some government employees and academics are allowed unfiltered home Internet service, and many Cubans turn to the black market for expensive, slow dial-up accounts.

Computers for home use were also not available until two weeks ago, when state stores began selling them to the public as part of a series of small quality-of-life changes since Raul Castro replaced his elder brother Fidel in February.

But Moreno said the government is unable to offer Cubans comprehensive Internet for their new PCs, citing its long-standing complaint that the U.S. embargo prevents it from getting service directly from the United States through underwater cables. Instead, Cuba gets Internet service through less reliable satellite connections, usually from faraway countries such as Italy and Canada.

Moreno said that authorities hope to link to fiber-optic service from Venezuela, which has replaced the Soviet Union as Cuba's chief economic benefactor.