Washington, US: US President Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Cuba next month, in a powerful sign of the thaw in relations between the Cold War-era foes, news reports said Wednesday.

ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reported that the visit would be the first for a sitting US president in more than 80 years.

CNN said the trip was to be formally announced Thursday, citing one source as saying the anticipated visit to the communist-ruled island would be short.

The White House declined to comment on the reports.

The trip is planned for March 21-22, before the president flies to Argentina, ABC reported.

It would be the first visit to Cuba by a US president while in office since a 1928 visit by Calvin Coolidge, it said.

Jimmy Carter visited Cuba in 2002 -- two decades after leaving office.

The two Cold War foes restored diplomatic relations in July after a historic rapprochement between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro the previous December.

Even so, the new openings have been small and incremental as the more than half-century-old US trade embargo on the island remains in place, with little prospect of repeal under a Republican-controlled Congress.

The Obama administration has instead focused on regulatory changes to ease travel and trade between the two countries.

On Tuesday, the US and Cuba signed an agreement authorizing daily US commercial flights to the island for the first time in more than 50 years.

US sanctions were imposed after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, moved toward revolutionary rule and then joined the Soviet bloc for decades.