HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — The United Nations (UN) is in talks with Washington over easing a crippling oil blockade on Cuba to allow in fuel for humanitarian purposes, the UN’s coordinator on the island told AFP on Monday.

Francisco Pichon said UN officials had had “exchanges” with United States (US) President Donald Trump’s administration “in order to guarantee access to fuel” for emergency relief work.

The discussions also covered the fuel needs of Cuban NGOs that work with the United Nations and state-run health centers providing aid for the elderly, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.

Trump has vowed to make US arch-foe Cuba his next target after Iran and the January overthrow of Washington’s other bete noire in the Caribbean, Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

In an attempt to precipitate the collapse of Cuba’s communist leadership, he imposed an energy blockade on the nation in January.

The Cuban state has received no oil shipments for two months, forcing airlines to curtail or suspend flights to the island.

The blockade has also starved Cuba’s power plants and farms of fuel and brought daily life to a near standstill.

On Saturday, Trump told several Latin American allies that the island was in its “last moments of life.”

Pichon said UN agencies in Cuba had been subject to strict fuel rationing, which had “compromised” their capacity to fulfill their mandate.

UN staff were largely unable to carry out field work and UN agencies are having difficulty retrieving aid shipments from ports and airports, he added.

Havana accuses Trump of seeking to strangle Cuba’s economy.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel has imposed emergency measures to conserve fuel, including strict fuel rationing.

Washington has claimed that Cuba represents an “extraordinary threat” to the United States to justify the blockade.