Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother, was last night named Cuba’s first new President in nearly 50 years and quickly dampened hopes of any swift or big change in the western hemisphere’s only Communist state.

Raúl, 76, acknowledged in his acceptance speech that Cuba faced problems and he spoke of the need for economic reform, the streamlining of bureaucracy and greater public consultation.

Raúl also warned the United States against meddling in Cuba’s affairs and told the assembly that he would consult his ailing 81-year-old brother on all important decisions. “I accept the responsibility I have been given with the conviction I have repeated often: there is only one Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel is Fidel and we all know it well,” he declared.

The National Assembly, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, also appointed José Ramón Machado Ventura, 77, a 1950s revolutionary figure and hardline Communist Party ideologue, as Cuba’s First Vice-President. Mr Machado was made Raúl Castro’s second-in-command in preference to Carlos Lage, 56, a moderniser and member of a younger generation of Cuban leaders, who had been tipped for the post.

Mr Lage was named one of six vice-presidents, along with Juan Almeida Bosque, 81, another revolutionary leader; Interior Minister Abelardo Colomoé Ibarra, 68; Esteban Lazo Hernández, 63, a long-time Communist Party leader; and General Julio Casas Regueiro, 71, who was Raúl Castro’s deputy at the Defence Ministry.

Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for nearly 19 months, was too ill to attend the assembly and voted by proxy, but received a standing ovation when his name was read out.

As Fidel’s 49-year-rule ended formally, the Bush Administration urged Cuba to move towards “peaceful, democratic change” and let its 11 million citizens become “masters of their own lives”. “We urge the Cuban Government to begin a process of peaceful, democratic change by releasing all political prisoners, respecting human rights and creating a clear pathway toward free and fair elections,” Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, said in a statement shortly before Raúl’s accession.

Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan leader and one of Fidel Castro’s closest allies, mocked the idea of a transition in Cuba. “The transition occurred 49 years ago,” he said. “The transition will continue marching forward, always with Fidel at the forefront.” How Raúl governs in practice, and whether Fidel will allow him much freedom of manoeuvre, remains to be seen.

Raúl was a Communist long before Fidel, introduced his brother to Che Guevara and urged him to cast Cuba’s lot in with the Soviet Union. He was the ruthless enforcer who executed hundreds of opponents after his brother’s defeat of the Batista regime in 1959. As the world’s longest-ruling defence minister he enjoys the absolute loyalty of Cuba’s formidable army, security services and the Communist Party.

He is also the pragmatist who saved Cuba’s economy in the 1990s, after the Soviet Union’s collapse, by permitting inward investment and a modicum of private enterprise. He is said to admire China’s model of economic reform while retaining strict political control.

In style Raúl is the opposite of Fidel — private, low-profile, lacking in charisma, not given to long speeches and more comfortable in a business suit than military attire. Unlike his brother, he is also said to be an efficient manager and good delegator who gets things done. “Fidel is the political brother. Raúl is the practical one,” said Alina Fernández, Fidel’s exiled daughter, who lives in Miami.

He needs to be. He inherits a run-down country where the average wage is less than $20 a month, food is short, the housing stock is crumbling and public transport is abysmal. To prosper, or even survive, he will have to deliver some marked improvements to his compatriots’ standard of living in fairly short order.

As Cuba’s provisional leader since Fidel underwent abdominal surgery in July 2006, Raúl has talked of reform, though as yet he has delivered little.

Addressing one of the main complaints of ordinary people, he said yesterday that the Government would seek to improve salaries. But reforms would take time, he cautioned, and would have to fit within the confines of socialism. Cubans would need to be patient while the Government studied possible solutions.

Cubans are nervous of change and fear upheavals of the sort that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the introduction of unbridled capitalism and the return of hundreds of thousands of exiles demanding the restitution of their confiscated property.

A lifetime in training

June 3,1931 Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz born

1953 Participates with Fidel in the 26th of July Movement and attack on the Moncada barracks. Jailed with his brother then exiled to Mexico

1953-56 Befriends Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Mexico City, drawing him into his brother’s circle of revolutionaries

December 2, 1956 Returns to Cuba aboard the Granma with Fidel, Guevara and a handful of followers to foment revolution in Cuba

1957-59 Fights a guerrilla campaign against Batista Government with growing band of supporters from base in the wooded Sierra Maestra

1959 Rebels prevail against Batista regime. Raúl Castro marries Vilma Espín Guillois, a chemical engineer fighting with the rebels

1961-2006 Serves as Vice-President of the Council of State, National Assembly and Council of Ministers

1987-97 Shrinks Cuba’s armed forces and increases tourist industry in response to vanishing Soviet subsidy

July 31, 2006 Appointed interim president as Fidel treated for unspecified intestinal ailment

June 18, 2007 Vilma Espín Guillois dies

February 24, 2008 Raúl Castro only candidate presented to the National Assembly to replace Fidel Castro as President of Cuba

Source: Times archives

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