Castro recovering, not out of picture-top aide

Havana, Jan 26: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who dropped from public view six months ago after undergoing emergency surgery, is recovering and is still in charge of Cuba, a senior government official said.

''He is still at the helm,'' Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, told reporters yesterday.

Alarcon said the 80-year-old Cuban leader was out of sight because he was following strict doctor's instructions for his recovery ''which is going very well.'' Castro relinquished power for the first time since his 1959 revolution when he handed over government duties temporarily to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro on July 31.

Alarcon said the timing of Fidel Castro's return to public life would depend on his recovery and indicated that skeptics were in for a surprise.

Alarcon dismissed as ''speculation by gossip mongers'' a Spanish newspaper report that Castro had had a series of three failed operations on his large intestine since last July that caused severe infection.

El Pais newspaper, citing medical sources close to a Spanish surgeon who examined Castro in December, reported last week that the Cuban leader's prognosis was ''very grave'' because his surgery ran into complications after he chose a riskier operation to avoid a routine though uncomfortable colostomy.

Castro underwent initial surgery to stop intestinal bleeding caused by working too hard, the government said.

Details of his condition are a state secret.

US officials have said they suspect he has terminal cancer. But El Pais said he had surgery for diverticulitis, pouch-like sacks in the intestine that can become inflamed and infected.

Castro's main ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said last week that his Cuban mentor was ''fighting a battle for life.'' On Wednesday, Chavez read a letter from Castro to the media, displaying Castro's signature as evidence that reports he was dying were false.

''We are really pleased, Fidel, with the news that we have received about your recovery,'' Chavez said.

Reuters