Castro 'lucid and at full capacity'

Yahoo! News.AAP via Yahoo!7 News, October 12, 2007.

Fidel Castro is "lucid" and mentally is "at full capacity," Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said on Thursday following a two-day visit to Havana.

Zelaya did not meet with Castro during his visit, but said he spoke with the Cuban leader by telephone for about half an hour on Wednesday.

"He has a very firm voice ... and he is lucid, extremely lucid," Zelaya told reporters in Honduras. "Definitely, he is a person who is at full capacity, and I can testify to that."

Castro has not appeared in public since announcing on July 31, 2006, that emergency intestinal surgery was forcing him to step down in favour of a provisional government headed by his 76-year-old brother, Raul. He has appeared in a series of videos and photographs.

Castro called Zelaya at the hotel where he was staying in Havana, and "we talked about Honduras, Cuba, the various issues in Honduras which he is familiar with ... coffee, corn and soy production, and the development of our economies," Zelaya said.

Zelaya's trip was the first official visit by a Honduran president to the island in 46 years, after Honduras broke off relations with Cuba in 1961. Relations were re-established in 2002, and Honduras named an ambassador to Cuba in April.