Castro in "slow, progressive" recovery

MADRID, Jan 19 (Reuters) Cuban leader Fidel Castro is making a ''slow but progressive'' recovery although his condition is serious due to his advanced age, a Spanish doctor who has examined him said today.

Castro, 80, has suffered complications after undergoing surgery on his digestive system but could return to normal activities if he makes a full recovery, Dr Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido told Reuters in an interview.

''I have recent information that his recovery is slow but progressive,'' said Garcia Sabrido, who examined Castro in Havana late last year and is a consultant to his medical team.

Cuba's communist leadership has maintained intense secrecy around Castro's health crisis which forced the revolutionary leader to relinquish power to his brother Raul on July 31.

Castro has not been seen in public since July, fuelling speculation he is so ill he may never return to power.

Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon public hospital, said the outlook for any 80-year-old patient who suffered complications after surgery was always very serious.

''For a patient of his age, who has had complications after an operation, it's always going to be a general prognosis,'' he said when asked if Castro was in a ''very serious condition'', as reported by Spain's El Pais newspaper on Monday.

''Any imbalance can naturally cause complications. We don't have the ability to foretell what is going to happen with this, but we have the ability to observe what is happening,'' Garcia Sabrido said.

He declined to comment on when he was last briefed on Castro's health.

RUMOUR, SPECULATION The surgeon largely dismissed other reports in El Pais this week that Castro had undergone three botched operations for diverticulitis or bulges in the large intestine.

On Tuesday the paper, citing two medical sources at Garcia Sabrido's hospital, reported Castro decided to avoid a colostomy and opt for a riskier operation that failed.

A colostomy, the usual procedure for diverticulitis after removing part of the intestine, is an opening in the abdomen to release stool into an external bag.

But Garcia Sabrido criticised the El Pais articles.

''They are full of inaccuracies -- they are fundamentally rumours, and in some extreme cases absolutely false,'' said the doctor, who regularly visits Cuba for medical conferences and medical consultations.

He said he did not know who El Pais's sources were, but recommended scrutiny regarding reports on Castro's health.

''Good, good information, comes from few sources, the rest you can consider rumour and in some cases speculation,'' he said.

Ana Alfageme, one of the El Pais reporters who wrote the stories, told Reuters Garcia Sabrido was not their source.

The doctor's prognosis has changed little since December, 26 when, on his return from examining Castro, he said the leader did not have cancer and could even return to power.

''If his recovery is complete, it is a personal decision,'' Garcia Sabrido said today of a possible Castro comeback.

His outlook contrasts with that of US intelligence officials who expect Castro to die within months.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Castro ally, said on Tuesday the Cuban leader's recovery was slow and not without risks.

Reuters PB RN1806