Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted US President George W. Bush's biofuel plan as "genocidal" in an editorial yesterday, saying it would worsen global hunger.

The column published as "Reflections of the Commander in Chief" in the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma was the second in a week by Castro attacking Bush's proposals to increase the use of foodstuffs like corn for fuel to run cars.

It was the latest sign the 80-year-old revolutionary who has not appeared in public since undergoing surgery eight months ago is feeling better and keeping abreast of world affairs.

Unable to give speeches, the formerly verbose Castro has taken up the pen to attack his ideological nemesis, the US government, focusing on the Bush administration's plan to increase fuel production from renewable crops instead of oil.

Ethanol production topped the agenda at Bush's meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at Camp David last week. The United States and Brazil are the world's top producers of the biofuel.

"At Camp David, Bush declared his intention to apply this formula on a world scale, which means none other than the internationalization of genocide," Castro wrote.

Dozens of nations do not have oil and cannot produce corn or other grains to make ethanol because they lack water, he said. The surge in demand for corn will push up grain prices, while the threat of a US invasion of Iran is keeping oil prices high, Castro wrote.

"Where will the poor nations of the Third World get the minimum resources to survive?" he asked.

Source: China Daily