HAVANA: Fidel Castro has appeared in his sickbed in new television footage broadcast, along with his brother Raul, the interim president, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Chavez visited Castro, who is recovering from intestinal surgery, on a stopover in Havana on his way back from a 10-day trip to China, Malaysia, Syria and Angola.
Chavez visited Castro on August 13 to celebrate the Cuban leader's 80th birthday.
Fidel Castro stunned Cubans when he announced in a statement on July 31 that he was recovering from intestinal surgery and had temporarily ceded power to Raul, 75, his constitutionally designated successor and the Caribbean nation's defense minister, for the first time in 48 years.
In the month since an ailing Castro ceded power to his brother Raul, very little has changed in communist-run Cuba.
Cuba's Communist Party reaffirms daily that Fidel Castro's handover of power to his brother Raul is a plan to stave off any offensive by US President George W. Bush toward a political transition.
Washington recently unveiled a second report from its Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, created in May 2004 and co-chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with the purpose of accelerating political change in Cuba after Fidel.
The plan, approved by Bush, has a section kept secret for reasons of national security. That has sparked Cuban suspicions of likely aggression or even an attack on the regime. However, on July 31, the ailing Fidel Castro, temporarily delegated his powers to his brother Raul.
