HAVANA - Fidel Castro says he had an "agreeable and edifying" meeting with a top Russian Orthodox leader and that the churchman "is no enemy of socialism."
The ailing former president says the meeting with Metropolitan Kirill, the church's top foreign relations official, occurred Sunday after the consecration of a new Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana.
He offered no details.
Cuba's state-controlled media had not previously reported on the meeting, which Castro mentioned late Tuesday on a government Web site.
Castro says he proposed the cathedral as a monument to Cuban-Russian friendship when he met with Kirill during a 2004 visit.
Castro says he decided to meet with the churchman again on Sunday after it had been consecrated.
