Fidel Castro seems to be one of those men who will not take to retirement easily.

Three days after announcing the end of his 49-year rule, he returned to the fray yesterday with a mocking attack on his critics in America.

In one of his periodic columns in Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma, the former President said that he was exhausted by the time he stepped down and had promised himself a holiday.

“I had planned to stop writing my reflections for at least ten days,” he continued — but that was before he saw the reaction of US politicians to his departure.

“I could not remain silent for so long. I have to open fire ideologically on them,” he wrote.

“I enjoyed seeing the embarrassing position of all the US presidential candidates...One by one, they were forced to make immediate demands on Cuba to avoid risking a single vote. ‘Change, change, change!' they cried in chorus. I agree, ‘Change!' but in the United States.”

President Bush “said my message was the beginning of the road to freedom in Cuba — in other words, to annexation” by the US, he wrote.

Castro did make one concession to his new status. He ordered Granma to run his column not on the front page but on page two, and under the name of “Comrade Fidel” not the “Comandante en Jefe”.

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