The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC Online

Cuba's ailing communist leader, Fidel Castro, has raised the possibility that he may never return to the presidency.

In a letter read out on state TV, Castro, Cuba's leader since 1959, said he had a duty not to hold on to power or obstruct the rise of younger people.

Last year, he temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul and has not been seen in public since.

The statement comes before elections next year to choose a national assembly which then selects the president.

The message was delivered during Cuba's main nightly current affairs programme, Mesa Redonda.

The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says it was not a formal letter of resignation, and there is no indication about how or when the Cuban leader might step down.

But the mention of younger leaders suggests that his younger brother Raul, who is 76, may not automatically succeed the president, our correspondent says.

Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba since leading the 1959 revolution.

Earlier this month he was nominated as a candidate for a seat in Cuba's National Assembly - a move seen as an indication that he might still hope for a return to power. Castro must be re-elected to the assembly if he is to remain president of the Council of State, and so head of Cuba's one-party government.

Nationwide elections will be held on 20 January. The newly elected assembly will then choose the Council of State, which President Fidel Castro has headed since the early 1960s.