Havana: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, described by sources as well enough to be eating and sitting up, could return to power in several weeks, according to Cuba's vice president.
Vice President Carlos Lage denied a newspaper report that the 79-year-old former guerrilla fighter who had surgery for internal bleeding and temporarily turned over power to brother Raul on Monday, is suffering from stomach cancer and has an unfavorable prognosis.
''Fidel has had to confront an operation and is recovering favourably. He does not have cancer,'' Lage told reporters during an official visit to Bolivia on Sunday.
He said the long-time Communist leader, who has not been seen in public since July 26, could reassume power from Raul ''in several weeks.''
Lage's comments were the latest assurances by Cuban officials and allies that Castro had not lost his grip on the communist government he has run since sweeping into power in a 1959 revolution.
In Havana, where residents were stunned at Monday's announcement that the ''Comandante'' had provisionally given power to Raul Castro, 75, sources who had spoken to government officials said Fidel Castro was doing well for a man his age.
''I was told Fidel is doing better, he has eaten something and sat up,'' one source told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
Mid-level Communist Party officials were informed that Castro was out of intensive care and beginning to recover, a party source said in Santiago, Cuba's second largest city.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, in a speech to lawmakers in Sucre, Bolivia, with Lage in attendance, said Castro already ''has recovered'' from the operation.
''What is now lacking is that he return to running the country,'' said Morales, a Castro ally.
The statements followed a report by one of Brazil's top newspapers, Folha de S Paulo, that Cuban officials told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and members of the ruling Workers' Party that Castro had a malignant stomach tumor and his condition was worse than has been publicly admitted.
A Brazilian government spokesman said the report was incorrect, but the reporter stood by the story.
''The information was obtained by Folha from two direct aides to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva,'' the reporter who wrote the story said in a letter to his newspaper to be published on Sunday. An extract was given to Reuters.
The fact that neither of the Castro brothers has surfaced since the handover of power has triggered uncertainty about Cuba's future and speculation that Fidel Castro's 47-year rule could be drawing to a close.
Dr Howard Manten, a gastroenterologist and associate professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine, said stomach cancer symptoms included internal bleeding, but there were many other possible causes for bleeding, including ulcers or gastritis.
Typically, patients who have had intestinal surgery are in the hospital for a week and walking in two weeks, although Castro's age works against him, Manten said.
The prognosis for stomach cancer patients ''is not great in terms of long-term survival,'' he added.
On Saturday, Daniel Ortega, the former leftist president of Nicaragua, arrived in Cuba to show his support for the Castro brothers, officials said.
Ortega's Sandinista government was backed by Cuba in the 1980s and he is running for election again in November.
''That's what a friend is for, to be there in good times and difficult times,'' said Jacinto Suarez, a member of the Sandinista Party's national leadership.
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