HAVANA – Cuba's state media on Sunday published photos of Fidel Castro meeting the visiting president of Venezuela, but it provided no new details about the ailing Cuban leader's health.
Wearing the red, white and blue track suit that has become his typical dress during his convalescence, Castro looks pale and serious in one photograph published on the Web site of the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde as he stands and shakes the hand of Hugo Chavez.
But Castro looks more animated in a second photograph as the pair sit in bamboo chairs at an undisclosed location. He appears to read from a book with a picture of Guevara on the cover while Chavez looks on. In both, Castro's already sparse gray beard seems to have thinned considerably.
Chavez arrived in Havana late Friday and is scheduled to broadcast his weekly radio and television program Sunday from the central provincial capital of Santa Clara, where the Cuban government on Monday marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Cuban news media announced that the Venezuelan program would be carried on radio and television on the island.
The last official image of Castro was a photograph released late last month, showing him looking more robust than in some past pictures as he met Angolan President Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.
Chavez has come to visit Castro several times since the Cuban leader underwent emergency intestinal surgery in late July 2006 and ceded authority to his younger brother Raul.
Castro has not appeared in public in the 14 months since he fell ill and was not expected to make an appearance on Sunday's show. Castro called into one of Chavez's programs broadcast from Venezuela in February and the pair chatted for more than a half hour.
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