New Castro Pix Suggest Recovery

Photographs of Fidel Castro meeting with the head of a visiting Chinese Communist Party delegation were published Saturday in Cuba's party newspaper in the latest sign the Cuban leader is becoming increasingly active more than eight months after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery.

The Communist Party daily Granma reported that Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politiburo, met separately Friday with both Castro and his younger brother Raul, who has been filling in for his brother since July.

A short message about the encounter was first read Friday night on state television and carried on official news services, but the new images of Castro were not released until Saturday.

In two photographs published on Granma's Web site, Castro is seen dressed in a brown and red track suit with white detailing as he meets with Wu. In one, he sits in a rocking chair across from Wu with another member of the Chinese delegation between them, apparently taking notes on the meeting. In a second, the two men are standing and shaking hands.

While he looks somewhat pale after months indoors, the 80-year-old appears much stronger than the early images of him last fall, dressed in red pajamas and resting in bed while visiting with his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Fidel Castro's condition and exact ailment remain state secrets, but he is believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which can cause inflammation and bleeding in the colon.

Castro has not been seen in public since before July 31, when he announced he had undergone surgery and was provisionally ceding power to his brother while he recovered. Since then, he has been seen only in photographs and videos released by the government, initially looking thin and weak but more recently appearing stronger.

These photos, and the recent comments of Cuban officials, are feeding expectations that Castro will appear in the upcoming annual May Day parade on May 1 in celebration of International Workers Day, says CBS News correspondent Portia Siegelbaum.

This year's festivities may also serve the dual purpose of protesting the release from a U.S. prison of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who Cuba and Venezuela accuse of masterminding the mid-air bombing of a Cuban civilian plane in 1976 in which 73 people were killed.

In recent weeks, he has written three editorials published in official media under the title "Reflections of the Commander in Chief," two about his opposition to the use of food crops for the production of ethanol for cars, and another accusing the U.S. government of protecting his old nemesis Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born anti-communist militant who was released this week from American custody while he awaits trial on immigration fraud charges.

After meeting for an hour with Fidel Castro and delivering a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao, Wu met with Raul Castro to discuss economic and other issues, Granma said.

Trade between the two communist countries has burgeoned in recent years, growing to $1.8 billion last year, double that of 2005, according to Chinese officials in Cuba. Chinese exports of buses, locomotives and farm equipment and supplies to Cuba helped account for the sharp increase.

After his stop in Cuba, Wu heads next to Colombia and Chile.