Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday held talks with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country offered Cuba millions of U.S. dollars in credit.
"The meeting is holding as we speak," which began at 5:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), said Favio Rocha, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Castro, 81, has been recovering from a serious stomach complaint since July 2006, when he temporarily handed over power to Defense Minister Raul Castro.
The talks came at the end of Lula's 24-hour visit to Cuba. He also met earlier with Raul Castro at the Palace of the Revolution.
This is the Brazilian president's second Cuba tour since he took office in 2003.
During Lula's visit, the two countries signed 10 deals, ranging from oil exploration, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals to agriculture, in efforts to boost the bilateral cooperation, said Cuba's Latin American News Agency.
They included a memorandum of understanding allowing Brazilian state-owned energy company Petrobras to explore and produce oil and gas in Cuban-owned Gulf of Mexico waters.
A second memorandum agreed to hold a feasibility study on a possible joint venture to produce and sell lubricants in Cuba.
In another deal, Brazil's Financing and Export Guarantee Committee approved loans for Cuban food purchases, the expansion of Cuba's Ernesto Guevara Nickel Plant and the purchase of Cuban fish farming equipment.
The committee also agreed to assess a series of projects from hotels to pharmaceuticals.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said food credits may amount to 100 million dollars.
Source:Xinhua
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