Cuba on Monday condemned Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo's criticism on its human rights situation, calling it "disrespectful interference in Cuban internal affairs."

"We express our strong opposition to these statements constituting a new interference in Cuban internal affairs," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera said in an official release Monday afternoon.

In an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo published on Sunday, Garcia-Margallo said that "as long as Cuba does not take steps toward democracy ... and full recognition of rights and freedoms, his country would not support any change of the so-called 'Common Position' of the European Union (EU) toward Havana."

The "Common Position," adopted in 1996, conditions the EU relations with Cuba to the "improvement of the respect to human rights and freedom on the island."

Havana rejects the EU measure and considers it as a "violation to its sovereignty and interference in its domestic affairs."

"The Spanish foreign minister should remember that Cuba is no longer a Spanish colony" and "does not accept questions from anyone, especially those trying to give lessons, when they actually have a roof of glass," Rodriguez stressed.

Rodriguez stated that instead of interfering in Cuban internal affairs, the Spanish government should try to solve its own economic and human rights problem.