Cuba and the Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations are working to resume talks over billions of dollars of official debt in a new sign the communist government is interested in rejoining the global economy, Reuters reported. A Paris Club delegation quietly travelled to Havana late last year to meet with Cuban bank officials, who were prepared with various proposals and appeared eager to strike a deal, according to Western diplomats.

Cuba suspended plans on Friday for a Communist Party congress and lowered its 2009 economic growth projection nearly a full percentage point as its economy struggled through what President Raúl Castro called a “very serious” crisis, The New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The gathering was expected to chart Cuba’s political future after Mr. Castro and his brother Fidel are gone. Instead, the nation’s leaders will try to pull their country back from the economic brink.