New Delhi, May 14 -- The United States on Wednesday renewed an offer of $100 million in aid for Cuba, pressuring its longtime nemesis to cooperate as it weathers an economic crisis that includes prolonged blackouts.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking last week in Rome, said that Cuba had rejected an offer of $100 million in assistance, an assertion denied by the communist government in Havana.

The State Department on Wednesday publicly renewed the proposal, which comes after the United States piled new sanctions against key parts of Cuba's state-controlled economy.

"The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba's co...