Pope Benedict criticised the 50-year-old US trade embargo on Cuba as he wrapped up a three-day visit to the island on Wednesday, urging reconciliation and greater freedoms.

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics also met with Cuba's revolutionary icon and former president, Fidel Castro.

"May no one feel excluded ... from taking up this exciting search for his or her basic freedoms, or excused from this by indolence or lack of material resources, a situation which is worsened when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people," the pontiff said.

Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Havana.