President Barack Obama on Friday sought to avoid a rift with his Latin American colleagues over Cuba ahead of his arrival at the first continent-wide summit of the Americas for four years.

Many of the other leaders at the 34-nation-strong summit, which continues in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend, have stepped up calls for the US to end its near half-century embargo on Havana. As tension has escalated, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has threatened not to sign the final communiqué.