Fidel Castro met with a top Chinese official for an hour, in another sign that the leader is assuming more of his official duties.
HAVANA: President Fidel Castro met with a top Chinese official for an hour, the government said, in another sign the convalescing leader is unofficially assuming more of his customary official duties.
"For an hour, Fidel met with a member of the (Chinese Communist Party). The meeting was fruitful and touched on a number of themes," according to a government statement released on Friday.
The exchange was "an expression of the excellent relations that have developed between the two countries," especially since a 2004 visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Saturday, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma ran two still photos of Castro and Wu, the first official media picture of Fidel Castro since January 30.
The most recent photo of him, with Colombian author and friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was run by the Colombian daily El Tiempo last month.
In the new images, Castro appears in a black and red track suit, both sitting and standing, and appeared to have gained back some of the weight he lost during his illness.
The official who met Castro, Wu Guanzheng, is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. He reportedly brought a card for the Cuban leader from Hu.
Wu arrived in Cuba on Thursday for a four-day official visit that is part of a tour that includes Colombia and Chile.
The government of China "considers its relations with the Communist Party and the government of Cuba a matter of high importance," Wu said.
After meeting with Castro, Wu saw his brother, acting president Raul Castro, who has served in Castro's place since July, and discussed "national and international issues of interest to both countries and marked the excellent relations between the two parties, governments and peoples," the report said.
China is Cuba's second-most important trade partner after Venezuela, with two-way trade close to two billion dollars in 2006, and one of Cuba's principal sources of credit.
After the talks, Raul Castro and Wu signed a bilateral agreement on economic and technical cooperation as well as a protocol on changes in a bilateral accord on investment protection.
Last August China urged non-interference in the affairs of Cuba, following comments by US President George W Bush offering US support for 'democratic change' in the Caribbean nation after Fidel had ceded power to his brother.
"China has all along stood for mutual respect between nations and mutual non-interference in the affairs of other nations," the Chinese foreign ministry said at that time.
"We believe that the internal affairs of Cuba should be decided by the Cuban peoples themselves."
Castro underwent intestinal surgery last July and temporarily handed over power to Raul, the defense chief.
However, in December, he managed to send New Year's greetings to Hu through the Chinese ambassador in Cuba.
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