WASHINGTON, Oct 24: A large majority of senators voted on Thursday to end the four-decade US ban on travel to Cuba, despite a veto threat from President George W. Bush.

The measure, passed 59-36, would withhold funds to enforce the travel ban, effectively ending restrictions on US citizens’ travel to Cuba.

The House of Representatives approved the amendment in September.

Both chambers of Congress are controlled by Bush’s Republican party, but the president has threatened to veto the proposal.

Earlier this month, Bush asked the Treasury Department to tighten enforcement of the travel ban.

“This vote today in the Senate, after the House, sends a very strong message that the American people don’t want their right to travel to be restricted,” Senator Byron Dorgan told reporters.

He said that Bush was defending the travel ban to appease the influential Cuban exile community in Florida, which vehemently opposes Cuban leader Fidel Castro and strongly supports the embargo.

“The embargo helps Castro. He can blame the US for its problems,” he said, warning that Bush would find it difficult to veto a measure passed by large majorities in both chambers of Congress. —AFP