Cuba's Castro has put on weight.......Recent picture

Reclusive Castro shown looking well

Agence France-Presse. February 14, 2009.

Feeling all white ... a tracksuited Fidel Castro poses with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet / Reuters

AILING former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is pictured standing, decked out in a white Adidas track suit, in new photos released after he met in Cuba with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet yesterday.

The Chilean Government released the pictures after a meeting in Havana between Mr Castro, 82 and still the head of the Cuban Communist Party, and Ms Bachelet.

In them, Mr Castro is shown standing next to Ms Bachelet but not smiling, wearing a track suit with dark trim. He was last photographed publicly in January during a visit with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.

Ms Bachelet, whose visit to Cuba continues today said Castro was in "very good condition" following their 90-minute meeting.

"I have met with Fidel Castro, he is in very good condition, we had a long conversation for an hour and a half," Ms Bachelet said.

Her three-day visit to Cuba is the first by a Chilean leader in more than three decades.

Ms Bachelet - a doctor by training - said that Mr Castro was "very active" and was lucid. "He knew all the most important details" about a range of topics she said.
"He was very interested in topics concerning Chile, analysing information, statistics and interested in hearing about areas in which we have had success," she said.

Mr Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in July 2006 during a health crisis. Raul Castro, 77, became Cuba's president officially a year ago.

Fidel Castro has not appeared in public for the past two and a half years following major digestive or intestinal surgery.
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25052999-401,00.html)