Castro dismisses Parkinson's report
Cuban President Fidel Castro does not has Parkinson's disease, the 79-year-old leader denied a CIA report when he spoke for more than five hours standing at a lectern on Thursday.

"They say Castro has this or that illness. The last thing they invented is that I have Parkinson's," he said in a speech to University of Havana students.

The assessment, completed by CIA in recent months, was based on a variety of evidence, including observations of Castro's public appearances and the opinions of doctors employed by the espionage agency, according to the official who has seen the CIA report.

Bush administration officials and members of Congress have already been briefed on the findings about Castro, the official told the media.

Castro, the target of CIA assassination attempts after he seized power in a leftist revolution in 1959, said his longtime ideological enemies in Washington were now waiting for him to die of natural causes.

"They have killed me so many times," he said, referring to frequent rumours about his health that originate in the United States, usually in the anti-communist Cuban exile community in Miami.

"They kill me every day. The day that I really die, nobody will believe me," he joked in the speech marking the 60th anniversary of the day he began his university studies.

"I don't care if I get Parkinson's. The pope (John Paul II) had Parkinson's and he spent years travelling around the world," Castro added.

Diplomats also played down the significance of any CIA assessment and said they were not using such intelligence to make policy decisions about Castro or Cuba.

Castro has been in power on the island of 11 million people since leading a 1959 evolution and has long been at ideological odds with Washington.

The reports about Castro's health have swirled around for years, growing more frequent as the 79-year-old Cuban leader grows older and interest in his inevitable succession sharpens.

Sometimes he is said to have cancer. Other times, he is said to have suffered a series of small strokes.

Castro's designated successor has long been his younger brother, 74-year-old Defense Minister Raul Castro.