Havana on the Offensive As Castro Lashes Out at 'fat Little Brother' Bush

The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, has finally acknowledged the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush - one of his most vociferous critics - as a political heavyweight. But his comments were a well-aimed dig at Mr Bush's expanding waistline rather than any softening of relations between Havana and Washington.

This latest round of a long-running personal feud with the Bush family follows last month's CIA assertion that the 79-year-old communist dictator was losing his mental faculties through Parkinson's disease.

"Forgive me for using the term 'fat little brother'," Mr Castro said to laughter from students at a University of Havana graduation ceremony. "It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health."

Unlike his older brother George, who has maintained a strict fitness regime during his time in the White House, Jeb Bush admits he has gained weight since taking office in 1999. A spokesman for the 52-year-old governor said he weighed 102kg (16st 1lb), almost 9.5kg heavier than the ideal weight for a man 1.93 metres (6ft 4in) tall.

Governor Bush previously said that keeping his weight down was "kind of a struggle for me", and says he never gets enough exercise because he is driven everywhere for security reasons.

He was embarrassed in October when he compared pedometers with students at a Tallahassee school who had been challenged to walk 10,000 steps a day. His recorded only 735.

He is also partial to hearty portions of home cooking. In the Bush Family Cookbook, a US bestseller containing the first family's favourite recipes, Barbara Bush says she still prepares her son's beloved childhood dessert - baked peaches flambé with lashings of brandy and heavy whipped cream - when he visits the family's ranch in Texas.

Jeb Bush said he was "flattered and honoured" by Mr Castro's comments. "He can call me whatever he wants. I will take any criticism from Fidel Castro, of all people, as an honour given that 8 million people live on the island, 8 million people are repressed and have been that way for 40 or 50 years."

Mr Castro, who seized power in 1959 and is the world's longest-serving leader, devotes large parts of his rambling speeches to attacking the Bushes. He also blames Jeb Bush for allowing anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative wanted for questioning over the Cuban airliner bombing that killed 73 people in 1976, to remain in the US.

His latest rant came at a ceremony to celebrate the 12th birthday of Elian Gonzalez, Cuba's most famous castaway who was seized at gunpoint from his relatives' Miami home by federal officials in April 2000 and returned to his father in Havana. His mother had drowned at sea. Elian sat in his school uniform and listened as Mr Castro celebrated his return.

At the time Jeb Bush remained publicly neutral but secretly tried to persuade immigration authorities to allow the boy to stay, angering Mr Castro but winning over 1.1 million Cuban exiles in Florida.

Weighing in

John Ellis (Jeb) Bush

Job Republican governor of Florida

Born February 11 1953, Texas

Weight 102kg.

Height 1.93 metres

Years in power Six

Favourite food Baked peach flambé with cream and brandy

Most prominent sibling George, 59, the US president

Most rebellious child Daughter Noelle, busted for drugs in 2002

Loves Family reunions in Texas

Fidel Castro Ruz

Job Cuban leader

Born August 13, 1926 Biran, Cuba

Height 1.90 metres

Weight 88kg

Years in power 46

Favourite food Cheese omelette with chillies, spaghetti with calamari

Most prominent sibling Brother Raúl, 73, Cuban defence chief and nominated successor

Most rebellious child Daughter Alina Fernández Revuelta, defected to US

Loves Cuban cigars, holds world record for long speeches