WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration will allow lawsuits by U.S. citizens against Cuban companies and other entities on Washington’s blacklist but will maintain for now a ban against suing foreign firms doing business on the communist-ruled island, the State Department said on Monday.

Lawsuits in U.S. courts against Cuban entities will be permitted beginning March 19 but the State Department will keep in place until at least April 17 a prohibition against legal action against foreign companies using property confiscated in the 1960s by the Cuban government, the State Department said.