posted October 06, 2006 11:44 AM              

Minister says Castro will return to power

From Miami Herald Wire Services. Posted on Thu, Oct. 05, 2006.

HAVANA - Cuba's foreign minister said Fidel Castro will return to his post as maximum leader of the island, though he did not say when, state-run media reported Wednesday.

''We will again have him leading the revolution,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said of the ailing Fidel Castro at an outdoor event Tuesday to discuss the ill effects of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, according to the Communist Party daily newspaper Granma.

The 80-year-old Castro temporarily ceded power to younger brother Raúl Castro on July 31, saying he needed time to recover from intestinal surgery.

Pérez Roque told The Associated Press in New York last month that he expected the Cuban leader to be fully back at the helm by early December.