US officials monitor health of Cuba's Fidel Castro

Washington, Aug 2 (UNI) US officials, closely monitoring the developments in Cuba, have reacted with caution regarding reports that long-time Cuban leader Fidel Castro is seriously ill.

An ailing President Fidel Castro has temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul, the country's defence minister. The State Department and the White House say that the US hope, eventually, is for a transition to democracy on the communist-run island.

Fidel Castro has been a major political irritant to the United States for decades. But the Bush administration is, at least publicly, taking a low-key approach to the Cuban leader's latest health crisis.

At his daily press briefing August 1, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow reiterated the US determination to help communist-ruled Cuba make the transition to a free, open and democratic society.

Snow said Castro's reported temporary handover of power to his brother, Cuban Defence Minister Raul Castro, after the dictator underwent intestinal surgery ''is not a change in status'' regarding the nature of the Cuban government. With that in mind, the United States has no plans to ''reach out" to Raul Castro'', said Snow.

The Press Secretary described Raul Castro's attempt ''to impose himself on the Cuban people'' as much the same as what his brother did'' in ruling the one-party state. Raul Castro was ''no more elected'' to lead Cuba than his brother, Snow said.

Snow said the US government does not know the state of Fidel Castro's health, and added that officials have no reason to believe that the Cuban dictator is dead.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said that while he could not comment on the extent of Castro's illness, the Cuban dictator's incapacitation or death would be a ''significant event'' for the people of Cuba.

If there were a change in leadership in Cuba, the United States would ''do everything that we can to stand by the Cuban people in their aspirations for a democracy,''McCormack said.

US policy toward Cuba is clear, said McCormack. ''We fully support a democratic, free, prosperous Cuba in which the Cuban people have the opportunity to, through the ballot box, choose who will lead them, not have their leaders imposed upon them,'' he said.

''The one thing we want to do is to continue to assure the people of Cuba that we stand ready to help,'' Snow said at the White House.

He said the Bush administration's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, co-chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, in July released its second report to the president on ways the United States can assist the people of Cuba now and provides for among other things the dissemination of uncensored information to Cubans via broadcasting and the Internet.

The commission promised extensive US financial and logistical help to a transitional government on the island if it committed to democracy and asked for American help.

Three weeks ago, President Bush approved an 80 million dollar two-year program to bolster non-governmental groups in Cuba with the aim of hastening the end of the 47-year-old Castro dictatorship and to help Cubans ''prepare for when they will recover their sovereignty and can select a government of their choosing through free and fair multi-party elections.'' UNI XC SY PM0936