Cuban leader Raul Castro has called on his cabinet to lift the existing ban on housing construction and "focus more on important issues" so as to speed up the expansion of the housing sector.

The official daily Granma on Thursday quoted the Cuban leader as saying "As we repeatedly have stated, the solution is not to prohibit building, but to indicate where and how" .

Raul Castro made the remarks last Friday at a meeting of the Council of Ministers. The meeting was aimed at addressing the housing shortage in the country.

According to official statistics, at least 600,000 housing units are needed in an urgent manner in Cuba while thousands of buildings and houses are in urgent need for repair work.

The Institute of Physical Planning and the authorities should focus on addressing the problems, Raul Castro said.

"The housing need can not be ground for illegalities, and when these occur, the Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Interior have the authority to deal with them and the offenders without offering space for impunity," said Castro.

He also encouraged the Institute of Physical Planning and the National Housing Institute (INV) to improve their work "to ensure an adequate response to the transformations in housing and urban development currently undertaken on the island".

As part of his ambitious reform agenda, the Cuban leader authorized in November the private sale and purchase of houses among Cubans, liberated the sale of construction materials and ordered the national bank system to grant credits for housing construction and subsidies to families who live in "vulnerable conditions".