Castro likely won't host summit dinner

Posted on Mon, Sep. 11, 2006

CUBA
Castro likely won't host summit dinner
Cuba's foreign minister said he couldn't confirm whether ailing leader
Fidel Castro will host a dinner for foreign leaders as it was first rumored.
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - Cuba's foreign minister said Sunday it was not certain that
Fidel Castro will host a dinner for visiting leaders as noted in a
schedule, raising doubts over whether the ailing leader would make his
first public appearance since undergoing surgery.

A dinner hosted by Castro for dignitaries attending this week's
Nonaligned Movement summit was mentioned in a schedule sent Sunday by
the government to international media.

But Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said he could not confirm the
leader's participation in the Friday event. ''Fidel is recovering
satisfactorily, the worst has been left behind,'' he said at a news
conference.

''I cannot yet confirm his presence at the dinner,'' Pérez Roque said.
``I can confirm that the head of the Cuban delegation at that moment
will be offering those dignitaries that dinner.''

The 80-year-old leader announced July 31 he had undergone emergency
surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment and provisionally handed
over power as Cuba's president and Communist Party head to his brother,
75-year-old Defense Minister Raúl Castro.

''If Fidel is not there, then Raúl will act as host at the dinner,''
Pérez Roque said.

''Logically, the physical absence of Fidel in all of the summit work
constitutes a notable loss,'' he said.

After the news conference, a different version of the Nonaligned
schedule was sent to international journalists permanently accredited in
Cuba, with a note saying it was the ''valid'' version. Although the
Friday night dinner was still listed, any mention of Castro hosting it
had been removed.

Dozens of heads of state and government are expected for the summit
starting today in Havana, during which Malaysia will turn over the
chairmanship of the movement to Cuba for the next three years.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/15489106.htm