22 January,2009 09:28 AM IST | | Agencies
Cuban President Raul Castro dismissed rumors that his older brother Fidel Castro was at death's door, saying on Wednesday he was mentally and physically active despite a long illness that has kept him out of public view.
Speculation had been rising that the ailing 82-year-old was in serious condition after he failed to attend celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution that put him in power on January 1, 1959 and stopped publishing in mid-December what had been a steady stream of newspaper columns.
Fidel Castro also had not received recent visiting heads of state, but on Wednesday he met with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who said they talked for more than an hour, mostly about new U.S. President Barack Obama.
"He spent time with the president, he is exercising, thinking a lot, reading a lot, assisting me and helping," Raul Castro said. "Soon I'm going to make a trip to Europe. Do you think I could leave from here if Fidel was gravely ill?"
