Castro “very ill and close to death”: US intelligence

CUBAN leader Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, the US director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told a newspaper.

“Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer: months, not years,” Mr Negroponte told the Washington Post.

However Mr Negroponte, the top US intelligence official, gave no details in the interview to back up his statement.

Mr Castro, 80, handed over the reins of power on July 31 to his brother Raul Castro, the army chief, after undergoing intestinal surgery. He has not been seen in public since July 26.

Raul Castro has since reached out to the United States, calling for negotiations.

The US and Cuba do not have full diplomatic relations and Washington has an economic embargo on the only one-party communist state in the Americas.

On Wednesday the top US diplomat for Latin America indicated the US had yet to find a reformer in the communist Cuban government.

However the US did not rule out dialogue with Havana.

On Friday, a bipartisan group of 10 US lawmakers departed for Havana to meet with top Cuban officials.