Cuban President Fidel Castro (L) and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez. AFP PHOTO

Emerging from months of seclusion, the 80-year-old Castro was shown on Cuban television Tuesday evening in apparent good spirits and looking healthier than in the previous footage broadcast on October 28, though still frail.

He was shown chatting with his Venezuelan friend and ally, President Hugo Chavez, and saying his recovery from surgery was "far from being a lost battle."

The broadcast added new grist to speculation about Castro's fate and leadership over the communist-ruled island six months after he underwent intestinal surgery and "provisionally" handed over power.

It appeared to confirm official assurances the president's recovery is going well, contrary to recent US claims he may have just days left to live.

But in the six minutes of footage, Castro made no mention of whether or when he might return to power.

Several Cuba-watchers doubt Castro would ever be able to fully resume his functions, even if he does returns to office.

And Washington admitted on Wednesday it had no clue about the state of Castro's health.

In the meeting, Castro spoke slowly and softly, and several Cubans who watched the broadcast said they had difficulty making out his words.

"He looked better, his complexion looked better, his hands were moving well, but I couldn't understand much of what he said," security guard Ramon Fernandez, 51, said on Wednesday.

Castro, who was shown, standing at the beginning and the end of the visit, recalled falling during a public event in October 2004, when he hurt his right shoulder and his left knee.

"I had a fall, I hadn't finished recovering, and then the other one came," he said in apparent reference to his surgery.

Chavez said Castro was in good spirits, looked well and spoke "with much clarity, as always, in his ideas" during the two-hour meeting.

State television said the two met in Havana on Monday and the footage showed the presidents looking at the Internet page of an Argentine daily dated January 27.

Chavez, a former paratrooper, greeted the smiling Castro with a crisp military salute and hailed him as "the Caesar of dignity."

It was the sixth time authorities released video footage of Castro since his July 27 surgery.

Following the operation, the president announced in a July 31 statement that he had "provisionally" handed over power to Raul Castro, 75, who is Cuba's defense minister and longtime number two.

Authorities in this one-party state have toned down their initial insistence that Castro would resume power as soon as he is better, and Parliamentary President Ricardo Alarcon said last week his return to power would depend on the continuation of his "post-operation progress."

Since the operation, authorities have given only scant details about Castro's condition, which the veteran revolutionary said must remain a "state secret."

Such secrecy is considered of paramount importance by the communist government, which insists that ever since Castro toppled Dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba has been under constant threat from the United States.

It has also fueled rumours and speculation.

Spain's El Pais daily said recently Castro had suffered intestinal hemorrhaging and a severe infection caused by inflammation of the large intestine.

US authorities suggested earlier this month the Cuban leader had cancer and may have only days to live, but a US State Department spokesman admitted on Wednesday: "We don't actually have any idea what the status of his health is."

"The Cuban regime is surprisingly disinterested in providing the US government with assessments of Fidel Castro's health," said Tom Casey.