Charter flights to Cuba, hard hit by Hurricane Melissa in late October, will leave Wednesday and Friday and carry $3 million in supplies, the State Department said.

This aid is "designed to reach those most in need, bypassing regime interference, and ensuring transparency and accountability," the department said in a statement.

Melissa caused major damage to large swathes of Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba and killed nearly 60 people across the Caribbean. Cuba was forced to evacuate more than 700,000 people to protect them from the storm.

The country suffered damage to its electrical grid, crops and homes. The United States announced on November 2 it would send aid.

"We are working closely with the Catholic Church to ensure assistance reaches the Cuban people directly and without regime interference," the US statement said.

It said Washington is sending rice, beans, cooking oil, sugar, water treatment kits, kitchen utensils, blankets and solar-powered lanterns.

The United States also plans to send a ship with aid in a few weeks.

The statement did not address the delay in sending aid now for a disaster that happened almost three months ago.

US-Cuba relations have been intermittently tense for decades but hit a new low after the US ouster and capture of Maduro and his wife on January 3.

Venezuela was a key ally of communist-run Cuba, providing it with oil and money in exchange for help from Cuban doctors and intelligence in a barter deal that began under the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday to "make a deal" soon, pledging to cut off all Venezuelan oil and money flowing to the island.

Trump says he is now running Venezuela and that he controls its oil exports, after allowing Maduro's government to stay in power so long as Caracas does what he wants.