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HAVANA - Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro met for one hour today with Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of China's Communist Party Politburo, Cuban television said.
The meeting with the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Cuba in more than a year was the latest sign that Castro, who relinquished power temporarily to his brother last July after emergency stomach surgery, was recovering steadily and resuming some government duties.
Wu handed the 80-year-old revolutionary a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao that expressed the "excellent ties" that have been developed between the two nations and their ruling Communist parties, state television said in its evening newscast.
No images were released of the meeting. Castro, who is thought to have suffered from diverticulitis, or inflamed bulges in the large intestine, has not appeared in public for more than eight months.
Cuban officials insist he is well on the way to recovery and gradually getting involved in leading the country again.
Wu, who arrived on Thursday for a four-day visit to boost political and trade ties between the two communist allies, met later with Cuba's acting president and Defence Minister Raul Castro, who has been formally running Cuba since his brother became ill.
China last year became Cuba's second biggest trading partner after Venezuela, with two-way trade doubling to almost US$1.8 billion ($2.45b), due mostly to China's exports of machinery, vehicles and consumer goods financed with Chinese credit.
Wu is the most senior official from China to visit Cuba since Lou Gan, another Politburo member, visited in December 2005, and Hu's visit in November 2004.
Relations between Beijing and Havana took off after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Wu will visit Colombia and Chile after Cuba.
- REUTERS
