President Barack Obama should not wait for Congress to begin making key changes in Cuba policy and should start by using his presidential authority to make adjustments to the U.S. trade embargo, a new report issued Thursday said.

The Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, D.C., assembled a group of 19 academics, diplomats and ''thinkers'' to chart out a road map for Obama to take action on Cuba. The panel -- led by a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana -- argues that Washington's hostile rhetoric has failed to make changes in Cuba and needs to stop.

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