Castro not bed-ridden, but his summit show uncertain

HAVANA, Sep 14 (Reuters) Cuban television showed photographs of convalescing Fidel Castro receiving a friend in a dressing gown on Wednesday and officials said he was back on the telephone giving orders.

But it was still unclear whether the 80-year-old leader was well enough to show up at a summit of developing nations hosted by Cuba. It would be his first public appearance since undergoing emergency surgery in late July.

''Don't think he is lying back in bed ... he has a telephone!'' his brother and acting president Raul Castro told Cuban reporters in comments posted on the Web site of the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma.

''He is on the phone giving orders,'' Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, told reporters, adding that Castro might appear at the summit if his doctors permit.

State television yesterday broadcast photographs of a gaunt-looking Castro sitting at a table speaking to leftist congressman and author Miguel Bonasso of Argentina.

As ministers debated denouncing the United States for its role as global policeman and Israel for bombing Lebanon, delegates talked in the corridors about Castro, wondering whether the iconic revolutionary would open the presidential segment of the Non-Aligned Movement summit tomorrow morning.

Castro was forced to hand over the running of Cuba to his brother on July 31 after undergoing emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding caused by an undisclosed illness.

Cuban officials reiterated that Fidel Castro is recovering steadily, but they say they have no idea whether the leftist firebrand will be strong enough to make an appearance at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

''The big topic here is whether Castro will show up tomorrow,'' said a European diplomat invited to the summit. ''This could be the last chance to see the man.'' Castro supporters are hoping to see their leader rise from his sickbed, stride into the summit in his trademark military fatigues and give a resounding speech on injustice in the world.

In a message to Cubans last week, Castro said he was well enough to receive some visiting leaders, but he indicated that might have to happen in private.

Delegates said they expect Castro, who has championed the cause of Third World countries for four decades, to speak to the summit at least in a brief televised address.

Cuba watchers say the summit will offer clues on the gravity of Castro's illness and whether a political succession has actually begun under his brother.

Some governments have used the meeting as an opportunity to get first hand information on where the West's only communist country is heading.

Brazil, Latin America's largest nation and regional power, is sending a higher level delegation than usual to the summit, where it is only an observer, headed by Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

''This was out of deference to the Cuban government, but also to find out what is really going on in Cuba,'' said a South American diplomat, who asked not to be named.

Raul Castro, defense minister since Cuba's 1959 revolution, has swapped his military uniform for a business suit to stand in as official host at Havana's airport to receive the 50-odd heads of state and government expected for the summit.

They include some of the fiercest critics of the United States, such as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan populist President Hugo Chavez.

REUTERS DKA KP1110