'Castro getting better' - Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has revealed that his close friend and ally Fidel Castro, the President of Cuba, has "almost totally recovered" from his illness.

Chavez said the 80-year-old Cuban leader has made a marked improvement in his health.

Chavez said: "The reports that I have and that keep arriving speak of a real recovery and not only the reports but his own notes and his voice on the telephone."

Castro has not been seen in public in more than eight months after undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily ceded his presidential functions to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the Cuban defence minister.

Castro's medical condition and actual ailment remain a state secret, but he is widely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, a common affliction among the elderly that causes inflammation and bleeding in the colon.

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