Castro Warns Poor Will Starve for Greener Fuel

The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, today attacked George Bush's new-found fondness for biofuels, warning that food stocks for millions of people could be threatened.

In his first foray into international politics following months of recuperation from intestinal surgery, Mr Castro claimed that valuable agricultural land in poorer countries could be taken over for biofuel crops destined for wealthier nations.

Mr Castro made his attack in an article for the communist party daily, Granma, which was headlined: "Condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst - more than 3 billion people of the world."

"This isn't an exaggerated number; it is actually cautious," said the article by Mr Castro.

"Apply this recipe to the countries of the third world and you will see how many people among the hungry masses of our planet will no longer consume corn.

"Or even worse: by offering financing to poor countries to produce ethanol from corn or any other kind of food no tree will be left to defend humanity from climate change."

The octogenarian leader wrote that during a meeting earlier this week between the US president and American car manufacturers, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States".

The implications of the article for Mr Castro's return to power were unclear. Last July, he provisionally handed over the day-to-day management of government to his 75-year-old brother, Raul, the defence minister, when he announced he had undergone intestinal surgery.

In recent weeks, the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, and several senior Cuban officials have indicated that Mr Castro could soon return to a more active role in public affairs. There is a growing expectation on the island that he could soon make his first public appearance since falling ill.

Mr Morales recently said from Bolivia that he expects to see Mr Castro in public on April 28, during a meeting in Havana with regional presidents.

Mr Castro's condition and his exact ailment are a state secret but he is widely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which causes a weakening in the walls of the colon.