HAVANA - Cuban state television showed a video Tuesday of a healthier looking President Fidel Castro meeting and speaking with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, the first images of the ailing Cuban leader shown in three months.
The report said the 10-minute video clip was taped Monday during a a two-hour private meeting in Havana that was not previously publicized.
"It's not a lost battle,'' Castro said of his health problems.
"Nor will it be,'' Chavez responded.
The newest images seemed to be aimed at knocking down the most recent round of reports about Castro's health, including a report in the Spanish newspaper El Pais earlier this month that described his health as "grave.''
Both leaders appeared to take pains in the video to make clear when the session occurred. Chavez could be heard saying it began at 3 p.m. on Jan 29. Castro read aloud a headline of an article dated Saturday from the Argentine newspaper Clarin.
Castro, who was standing, more looked alert and heavier than in previous images that had showed him much more thin and frail. Dressed in a red, white and blue track suit, the 80-year-old was also shown sitting and drinking orange juice.
"Fidel has said that we have not lost this battle,'' Chavez said in the video.
"I'll say something more: we have won it.''
The broadcast came six months after Castro's July 31 announcement that he had intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding power to his younger brother Raul. Castro had looked thinner and frailer in the last video images, which aired on Oct. 28.
Chavez said in Tuesday's video he found his friend to be "of good humour, with a good face and in good spirits.''
He said the pair discussed a variety of issues, including the world's energy crisis and Castro showed "much clarity, as always in his ideas and analysis.''
Castro stunned Cuba six months ago when he temporarily stepped aside for his younger brother, the 75-year-old defence minister. Since then, Raul Castro has led the country at the head of a collaborative leadership that has kept the government running calmly in his brother's absence from public life.
Chavez said he felt "happiness, jubilation, to find Fidel as I have found him'' and thanked "everyone: the relatives, comrades, doctors, nurses for the great effort they are making.''
