Cuban officials said Cuban President Fidel Castro was recovering and could return to power in a few weeks, even though he remained out of sight five days after surgery that forced him to put his brother in charge of the country.

They tried to allay suspicions the 79-year-old leader had lost his grip on the island nation he took over in a 1959 revolution, but admitted his health may require him to reduce his workload.

Government sources said Castro was well enough to be eating and sitting up, but he has not been seen in public since July 26.

Brother Raul, 75, has not surfaced since Fidel gave him provisional power last Monday, which has triggered speculation about who is in charge.

Vice-President Carlos Lage said Castro would return to the presidency "in several weeks" and denied a Brazilian newspaper report his surgery was for stomach cancer, not gastrointestinal bleeding as announced.

"Fidel has had to confront an operation and is recovering favourably. He does not have cancer," Lage told reporters during an official visit to Bolivia.

"The operation was successful," he said after attending a speech by Bolivian President and Castro ally Evo Morales, who also said the Cuban leader was on the mend.

In a telephone interview on a radio station in Miami, home to 650,000 Cuban-Americans and the centre of Castro opposition, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said Fidel came through the "complicated" surgery so well that a few hours afterwards "he was talking, he was making jokes."

"That's why I feel confident he will recover very soon," he said.

"We need him to be in good health and working," he said. "Part of that implies for him to sacrifice in terms of abandoning the day-to-day work to which he was so accustomed for many years."

In Havana, sources said government officials described Fidel Castro as doing well for a man his age.

Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Saturday that Cuban officials told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva his friend Castro had a malignant stomach tumour and his condition was worse than had been disclosed.

A Brazilian government spokesman said the report was incorrect, but the reporter stood by the story.

Source: China Daily