Castro unveils book on military victory

Havana: Fidel Castro presented his new book at a closed-door ceremony on Monday, a work he says contains an autobiographical section and details a major military victory that sped his rise to power in 1959.

The book, The Strategic Victory, has yet to be released to the general public. Organisers of the unveiling ceremony said 3,500 copies would be made available in coming days and 50,000 copies would eventually be published.

State television showed images of Castro's appearance at Havana's convention centre, alongside his longtime official biographer, Katiuska Blanco. Wearing a red, short-sleeve shirt and appearing relaxed, Castro spoke for more than an hour, largely reading from the book and pointing out highlights to a crowd that included ex-castaway Elian Gonzalez and his family.

Second time

It was the second time Gonzalez, who was 6 when he was at the centre of a nasty international custody battle pitting Cuba against the United States and who is now 16, was at a public event where Castro turned up.

When he was through reading, Castro took some historical questions from the crowd, then signed copies of the book. Castro, whose 84th birthday is August 13, has made a string of near daily public appearances of late, after staying almost completely out of the public eye since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

He ceded power to his younger brother Raul on a temporary basis, then and stepped down as president for good in February 2008.

Fidel has not been seen publicly with Raul and has skipped major political events, such as Sunday's session of Cuba's parliament or last week's celebration marking Revolution Day, the top holiday on Cuba's official calendar. But he has been popping up in other, unlikely places, from a meeting with Cuban ambassadors at the foreign ministry to the dolphin show at the Havana aquarium.

"I thought that this work wouldn't happen. We've been working on it a long time, and now I received this surprise," Castro said at the book reading.

He said he was surprised the book is being released so quickly, in just a matter of weeks after he completed it.