Havana: Fidel Castro is "exceptionally well" and appears recovered from a health crisis that has kept him out of the public eye for more than three years, Brazil`s President has said, according to reports by his country`s news media.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent more than an hour discussing "various topics" with his long-time friend, the 83-year-old Castro, who ceded power to his younger brother Raul - first temporarily, then permanently - after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.
The meeting was closed to international news media based in Havana, but information about it was carried in Cuban state media and by Brazil`s private Agencia Estado news agency.
Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since falling seriously ill, and his exact ailment has remained a state secret, though he has appeared healthier in photos released periodically by Cuba`s government.
Photographs of yesterday`s meeting released by Brazil`s presidency show a beaming Castro wearing blue-and-white exercise clothing, one of a series of tracksuits that have become his trademark uniform since he has been holed up in an undisclosed location.
The grey-bearded revolutionary was thought to be in far graver health - in fact, rumours of his imminent death were frequent - the last time Silva came to see him in January
2008.
PTI
