Visiting U.S. lawmakers told Castro doesn't have cancer, terminal illness

HAVANA -- Cuban officials told a group of visiting U.S. lawmakers that Fidel Castro does not have cancer or a terminal illness in the most comprehensive denial yet of rampant rumors about the ailing leader's health, the head of the U.S. delegation said Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said Cuban officials did not provide further details on the 80-year-old leader's health, but did say he will eventually return to public life.

"All the officials have told us that his illness is not cancer, nor is it terminal, and he will be back," Flake said in a telephone interview.

The U.S. delegation included U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau.

Castro's medical condition has been a state secret since he underwent surgery for intestinal bleeding in late July and temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro. He has not been seen publicly since July 26.

U.S. Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo, center, and Congressman William Delahunt, D-Mass, left, talked to Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque before their meeting in Havana, Saturday. A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Cuba Friday, following leadership shifts on the island and in the U.S. Congress that open new possibilities for change in U.S. policies. (Javier Galeano ~ Associated Press)

Cuban officials have repeatedly insisted the elder Castro is recovering, and Vice President Carlos Lage previously dismissed reports that the leader was suffering from stomach cancer. But officials have not publicly denied rumors that he could have another type of cancer or some other terminal illness.

U.S. officials have said they believe Castro suffers from some kind of inoperable cancer and will not live through the end of 2007. Some U.S. doctors have speculated he could have a colon condition called diverticulosis, which is relatively common among the elderly.

"They were more guarded than I expected about any suggestion that there might be any substantive change economically and politically," Flake, who supports lifting the U.S. embargo and travel ban on Cuba, said of Cuban officials.

The group of 10 lawmakers arrived Friday and has met with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon and Basic Industries Minister Yadira Garcia. They had not met with Raul Castro as of Sunday afternoon, and no longer expected to.

"We had hoped to meet with Raul, but that is not going to happen," said Flake, on his fifth trip to the island. "It seems that the Cuban government may not be ready to say that the new era has begun, and perhaps that meeting would suggest that."

In recent years, the Bush administration has intensified the U.S. trade embargo and other policies aimed at squeezing the island's economy and undermining Cuba's communist leaders.

Bush administration officials have twice rejected offers to talk with Cuban officials since Fidel Castro fell ill, saying that the country must first hold free and competitive elections and release all political prisoners.

On Friday, Fidel Castro telephoned a meeting of provincial legislative leaders, the Communist Party daily said Saturday in a report apparently aimed at quelling rumors about the leader's health. That call and another to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez the same day constituted the first news in 11 days about the convalescing Cuban leader.