President Raul Castro announced plans to pardon 3,000 prisoners, including 86 foreign nationals from 25 different countries, for "humanitarian reasons."

The unprecedented number of pardons will take place "in the coming days," Castro said on Friday, in a closing address to the National Assembly, without mentioning US contractor Alan Gross, who is jailed in Cuba for espionage.

The United States renewed its calls on December 2 for the immediate release of US contractor Gross, as he prepared to mark two years behind bars in Cuba on state security charges.

Gross was arrested December 3, 2009, for delivering laptops and communications equipment to Cuba's small Jewish community under a State Department contract.

In March, he was found guilty of "acts against the independence or territorial integrity" of Cuba, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.