Cuba is confident that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will become the first Spanish prime minister to make an official visit to the island since 1986, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday.

Zapatero would also be the first Western European leader to visit the island since 1999, when his predecessor Jose Maria Aznar and then Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio attended an Ibero-American summit in Havana.

Perez Roque spoke in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, which he visited after meeting his counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Madrid on Tuesday.

Moratinos said Zapatero had accepted an invitation from Cuban leader Raul Castro to visit the island in 2009.

Zapatero, however, said the plan was only a "proposal." "We will see if it is carried out and how it is carried out," he told reporters.

The invitation had been "accepted in principle" though the date had not yet been set, Perez Roque said.

Zapatero's visit would be the first official one by a Spanish prime minister since Felipe Gonzalez travelled to Cuba in 1986.

The European Union lifted diplomatic sanctions against Cuba in June partly at Spain's initiative.

Spanish and Cuban officials are discussing the details of a future credit line of 74 million euros (100 million dollars) following debt restructuring.

During Perez Roque's visit, Spain also agreed to fund a plan worth 24.5 million euros to help Cuba rebuild after the recent hurricane disasters.