Cuba's Fidel Castro appears in public for first time in over a year

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro, 88, has appeared in public "full of vitality" for the first time in more than a year, greeting a delegation of Venezuelans, official media reported.

It was his first known appearance outside his home since Cuba in December agreed to normalise relations with the United States, his longtime adversary.

Official media on Saturday showed images of a seated Castro shaking hands with the visiting Venezuelans through the window of his vehicle last Monday, wearing a baseball cap and a windbreaker.

There was no explanation why five days passed before the encounter was reported in Cuba.

He met at a school with 33 Venezuelans, who were on a solidarity mission to Cuba, for about 90 minutes. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, oil-rich Venezuela has become Communist Cuba's closest ally and chief benefactor.

Castro impressed the Venezuelans with a firm, long handshake and a lucid mind, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported in a writer's first-person account.