Dr. José Luis Garcia Sabrido gestures during a news conference at a hospital in Madrid in this December 26, 2006 file photo. Cuban leader Fidel Castro is making a "slow but progressive" recovery although his condition is serious due to his advanced age, Dr. Sabrido, who has examined him, said yesterday. - Reuters

MADRID, (Reuters):

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is making a "slow but progressive" recovery although his condition is serious due to his advanced age, a Spanish doctor who has examined him said yesterday.

Castro, 80, has suffered complications after undergoing surgery on his digestive system, but could return to normal activities if he makes a full recovery, Dr. José Luis Garcia Sabrido told Reuters in an interview.

"I have recent information that his recovery is slow but progressive," said Garcia Sabrido, who examined Castro in Havana late last year and is a consultant to his medical team.

Cuba's communist leadership has maintained intense secrecy around Castro's health crisis which forced the revolutionary leader to relinquish power to his brother Raul on July 31.

Castro has not been seen in public since July, fuelling speculation he is so ill he may never return to power.

Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon public hospital, said the outlook for any 80-year-old patient who suffered complications after surgery was always very serious.

"For a patient of his age, who has had complications after an operation, it's always going to be a general prognosis," he said when asked if Castro was in a "very serious condition", as reported by Spain's El Pais newspaper on Monday.

"Any imbalance can naturally cause complications. We don't have the ability to foretell what is going to happen with this, but we have the ability to observe what is happening," Garcia Sabrido said.

He declined to comment on when he was last briefed on Castro's health.

RUMOUR, SPECULATION

The surgeon largely dismissed other reports in El Pais this week that Castro had undergone three botched operations for diverticulitis or bulges in the large intestine.

On Tuesday the paper, citing two medical sources at Garcia Sabrido's hospital, reported Castro decided to avoid a colostomy and opt for a riskier operation that failed.