Cubans not surprised by Castro's retirement

Havana: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said yesterday that he will not return to lead the communist country, retiring as president 49 years after he seized power in a revolution and became a central figure of the Cold War.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honour in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept - I repeat not aspire to or accept - the positions of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief," Castro said in a statement published in the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

Cuba's National Assembly, a rubber-stamp legislature, is expected to nominate Castro's brother and designated successor Raul Castro as president. The 76-year-old defence minister has been running the country since emergency intestinal surgery forced his brother to delegate power on July 31, 2006.

One-party state

Raul Castro has raised hopes of economic reforms but he is unlikely to make bold political changes to the one-party state. Fidel Castro will remain influential as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party.

"This is a crucial moment. Cuba wants change, the people want change," said Oswaldo Paya, Cuba's best-known dissident. He said a succession headed by Raul Castro would not satisfy Cubans and called for an end to censorship.

Cubans on the empty streets of Havana were not surprised by Castro's retirement, first announced on Granma's website in the middle of the night.

"Everyone knew for a while that he would not come back. The people got used to his absence," said Roberto, a self-employed Cuban who did not want to be fully named.

"I don't know what to say. I just want to leave. This system cannot continue," said Alexis, a garbage collector.

In a deserted Revolution Square, the site of many hours-long speeches by Castro to massive crowds, a lone soldier stood guard at government headquarters. The city was calm.

The charismatic Castro led the bearded and cigar-chomping guerrillas who swept down from the mountains of eastern Cuba to overthrow US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

He then turned Cuba into a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and became the world's longest-serving head of state, barring monarchs.

Castro survived a CIA-backed invasion of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, as well as assassination attempts, the continuing US trade embargo, and an economic crisis in the 1990s after the collapse of Soviet bloc communism.

The US President George W. Bush said yesterday that Fidel Castro's decision to step down should spur democratic change in Cuba, as Russia's Communist Party hailed the "brave" move.

Bush, the latest in a long line of US presidents seeking to pressure Castro's regime, said the move should begin a "democratic transition" on the communist island.

"I view this as a period of transition and it should be a beginning of the democratic transition for the people in Cuba," he said in Rwanda.

Bush said the "first step" was for Havana to release political prisoners, and urged the global community to help build democratic institutionsin Cuba.