A Cuban newspaper Sunday published the first photographs of Fidel Castro since his stomach surgery, and the Cuban leader said he had stabilized "considerably."

He sent a message to Cubans on his 80th birthday that was published by youth daily Juventud Rebelde with four waist-up photographs of him wearing a tracksuit and speaking on the telephone, apparently sitting in a chair.

Castro has not appeared in public since ceding power to his younger brother Raul Castro on July 31 after undergoing an operation to stop intestinal bleeding.

One photograph showed Castro holding a supplement on him printed on Saturday by the Communist Party newspaper Granma, an apparent move to show the pictures were current.

"To say the stability has improved considerably is not to tell a lie. To say that the period of recovery will be short and there is now no risk, would be absolutely incorrect," Castro said in the message posted on the newspaper's website.

"The country is running well and will continue to do so," the man who has led Cuba for 47 years assured his people.

"I tell all those who wished me good health that I will fight for it," the paper quoted Castro as saying.

The Cuban state press said earlier that Castro was now walking and in good spirits.

An unidentified "friend" told Cuba's Granma newspaper in an article published on Saturday that Castro was taking a few steps after physical therapy and conversing "animatedly."

"He's as strong as the caguairan," the Granma headline read, referring to a particularly sturdy tropical hardwood tree that grows in Cuba.

"Like the tree emblematic of Cuba, he is upright, strong (and) tough, ideal for building lasting works. Our friend saw El Comandante walking about, like someone looking forward to new victories," Granma wrote.

While Castro's condition appears to be stable, it is not known whether he will be able to resume his government duties.

Cuban officials have said the workaholic Castro, whose intestinal bleeding was caused by overexertion, will have to lessen his workload if he is to recover.

Some 3,000 mainly young Cubans wished Castro happy birthday at midnight Saturday during a five-hour concert in his honour on the "Anti-Imperialist Stage" opposite the US diplomatic mission on Havana's Malecon seafront boulevard.

Singer-songwriter Amaury Perez orchestrated the soiree, which also featured musicians Frank Fernandez, Rosita Fornes and Kiki Korona, as well as the groups Hipnosis, Karma and Eddy K.

"We hope he gets better. For all oppressed people, Cuba is an example that socialism is possible," said Juan Carlos Cruz, a Bolivian studying medicine in Cuba for free. Students bused to the show held Cuban, Venezuelan and Bolivian flags.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was expected in Havana Sunday to give Castro his birthday greetings in person.

Cuban officials have insisted regularly over the past week that life in the Americas' only Communist country is "completely normal" as Castro recuperates, although neither he nor his brother have been seen in public.

(China Daily August 14, 2006)