Fidel Castro has paved the way for a younger generation of Cuban political leaders after announcing for the first time that he is preparing to retire from public life for good.

In a letter read out on state television, the ailing 81-year-old Cuban leader said that he would not hang on to power. “My basic duty is not to cling to office, and still less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to pass on the experiences and ideas whose modest worth stems from the exceptional era in which I have lived,” the President’s letter said.

The statement from the Cuban leader, who has not been seen in public since his life-threatening intestinal operation, was his clearest signal yet that he would not return to the presidency that he has occupied since 1959. It also suggested that he intends to hand power to a group of younger leaders of the Cuban Communist Party, in their forties and fifties, who did not participate directly in the Cuban Revolution.

“For me, after this letter, it’s clear that Fidel Castro is not returning to power,” said Susanne Gratius, a Cuba analyst at Fride, the Madrid-based international relations institute. “It is his official exit from the front line of Cuban politics.”

On July 31 last year, Mr Castro handed over day-to-day running of the country to his brother Raúl, who is 76. He also sparked speculation about a succession beyond the Castro family by appointing a group of six other men to head his pet projects in the fields of health, education and energy.

Experts say that a definitive successor is unlikely to emerge while Fidel Castro is alive. But that has not stopped fevered speculation about whose star has been rising or falling in the year and a half since he went into hospital. Cuba-watchers say that younger economic reformers have been gaining in influence at the expense of hardline Fidel loyalists such as Felipe Pérez Roque, the Foreign Minister.

Meanwhile, Carlos Lage Dávila, the Vice-President, 55, an economic reformer who enjoys the support of Raúl Castro, has become one of the most visible figures on the political scene. The former doctor has represented the Cuban Government at most international meetings and trips abroad and nurtured the all-important relationship with Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan President provides vital aid to the Cuban economy, which is beset by low wages, chronic shortages and a crumbling transport system.

“My guess is that if Fidel does step aside from the presidency, someone like Carlos Lage will become head of the Government,” said Brian Latell, a former Cuba analyst for the US Central Intelligence Agency.

“They have been grooming him to take on a much more visible, senior position.”

Mr Lage is credited with implementing the economic reforms that helped Cuba to ride out the collapse of its former patron, the Soviet Union. After the worst of the economic crisis was over, many of those tentative reforms were subsequently reversed by Fidel Castro.

His younger brother is believed to favour a gradual opening of the economy while retaining firm political control. However, “as long as Fidel Castro lives, it will be a very slow and gradual process of change”, Ms Gratius said. Even reformers such as Mr Lage have made sure to dampen expectations of any big, imminent changes.

“Socialism in Cuba is irreversible,” he said in a speech this year. “In Cuba there will be no succession. There will be continuity.”

Waiting in the wings

Raúl Castro (b1931) Nominated his brother’s successor in the late 1990s. Lacks Fidel’s popular appeal and talent for public speaking. Former Cuban Defence Minister

Carlos Lage Dávila (b1951) Vice-President of the Council of State and Secretary of the Council of Ministers, is considered the ‘de facto Prime Minister’ of Cuba. Credited with negotiating the favourable deal bringing Venezuelan oil to Cuba

Felipe Pérez Roque (b1965) Cuban Foreign Minister, one of the youngest members of government and one of few born after the revolution. Thought to be open to negotiating an end to the US embargo on Cuban goods

Sources: nndb.com ; Cuban Government; Times archives

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating