HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro almost fainted and was helped from the stage two hours into a speech on Saturday, but returned within minutes to say he was fine and joked later that it was a ``rehearsal'' for his death.
``I joked saying it was a rehearsal. You could say I was pretending I was dead, to see what my burial would look like,'' the 74-year-old Castro, apparently fully recovered and smiling, said later in an appearance on TV to finish his speech and take questions.
Castro's younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, who is No. 2 in the Cuban hierarchy, was shown in the TV studio, apparently to assure viewers all was well. The brothers do not usually appear together, for security reasons.
Castro's near collapse is sure to fuel what has become constant speculation over the veteran communist leader's health, how much longer he can remain in power and what will happen when he finally leaves the scene.
Castro, in power since the revolution he led in 1959, looked fit throughout most of the three-hour outdoor rally on Saturday morning, despite a broiling sun. But then he turned pale and his voice weakened.
The Cuban leader appeared to gain strength for a few moments before nearly collapsing and being forced to lean on the podium for support. He was immediately surrounded by bodyguards and aides, who whisked him from the stage -- a scene missed by his Cuban television audience as cameras panned away.
``Comrades, calm. I ask you to be calm,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Perez said as he took over the microphone.
Perez urged the 70,000 people gathered for the rally to raise their small Cuban flags. Some chanted ``Fidel, Fidel,'' while others wept.
``At this moment comrade Fidel has obviously had, with this heat and the superhuman force he has made in recent days, a momentary fatigue,'' Perez said.
He said Castro had worked through the night before traveling to Cotorro, an industrial town on the outskirts of Havana, for the rally.
The live television transmission then cut to other programming, but it went back to the rally when Castro reappeared about 10 minutes after leaving the stage.
``Don't worry, I'm fine,'' Castro said to applause and shouts of relief. ``I'll rest, sleep a few hours because truthfully I didn't sleep last night, looking for papers, figures and all that,'' Castro said as the crowd chanted his name.
During his Saturday evening TV appearance, Castro then gave a full and humorous account of what had happened. He said there was still a lot he wanted to do and he had to be ``a bit more prudent.''
He ended his later appearance after about two hours, without any further problems.
``I feel good ... my pressure is the same as when I was 30, usually 70 over 110 and a normal pulse, and I hope please that they let me work in peace,'' he said.
DENOUNCES UNITED STATES
In his speech, Castro, clad in his traditional military uniform despite the tropical heat, denounced the United States at length for allowing Miami-based exiles to attack Cuba.
He defended five Cuban agents convicted in Miami earlier this month on spying-related charges, calling them heroes and demanding their release and return to Cuba.
Saturday's incident was the first time in Castro's 42 years in power that he was unable to complete a speech. As recently as a few years ago, he would speak for more than eight hours at a stretch, but recently his speeches have been shorter.
Word quickly spread through the Havana streets and across the country that something had happened to the ``Comandante'' and just as quickly that he appeared to be all right.
``I saw him like that and it shook me up, but it's logical. He isn't 15,'' said 52-year-old Ernesto Quintana, a Havana worker and former Interior Ministry employee. ``My wife was home and started crying,'' he added.
``Fidel works a lot. He's too old for these excesses, but that's how he is and I doubt he will change,'' Antonio Aguilar, a 45-year-old electrician said in a phone interview from Santiago de Cuba, 540 miles (865 km) east of the capital.
Rumors that Castro suffers from Parkinson's disease, that he has heart problems, that he had a stroke and even that he has died, are common. Castro often pokes fun at the speculation and Cuban officials insist he is in excellent health.
In Miami, where Castro's foes in the Cuban exile community keep an obsessive eye on his health a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation exile group said she was listening to the Cuban radio broadcast when the incident occurred.
``There is a lot of interest in this,'' Ninoska Perez said in Miami. ``We have been getting reports his health is deteriorating.''
But exile groups have sometimes been eager to assert that Castro's health is fading, only for him to prove them wrong. On several occasions, Castro has joked that his enemies have tried to ``kill him off'' with false reports, and he has added that he will keep fit in order to ``frustrate'' them a bit longer.