Former Soviet leader Gorbachev hails Fidel Castro for 'strengthening' Cuba

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev today hailed Fidel Castro, the Cuban socialist icon who has aged 90, for "strengthening" his island nation.

"Fidel stood up and strengthened his country during the harshest American blockade, when there was colossal pressure on him and he still took his country out of this blockade to a path of independent development," Interfax news agency quoted Gorbachev as saying. 

Castro built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States (US) and for five decades defied US efforts to topple him, He was in poor health since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006. The bearded Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.

Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fist-pounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the US. His death - which would once have thrown a question mark over Cuba's future - seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as his brother Raul Castro, 85, is firmly ensconced in power.