Cuba's Castro hints at retirement

HAVANA, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro hinted in a statement read on Cubavision TV Monday he is considering retirement.

Castro, 81, said he didn't want to hinder the advancement of younger people, an allusion to his possible retirement, according to experts.

"My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so to obstruct the rise of people much younger, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived," Castro said in the letter read on Cuban television.

Castro, who has run the communist island since a 1959 revolution, is set to stand for re-election in elections scheduled for next month.

However, the Cuban president handed over day-to-day decision-making to his younger brother Raul in July 2006 after announcing he was suffering from an unspecified gastro-intestinal illness.

Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since the announcement though he has appeared in videos meeting with world leaders and said in statements his health has improved.