MUNICIPIO INDEPENDENCIA, Venezuela ...

MUNICIPIO INDEPENDENCIA, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez said Thursday his cease friend and ally Fidel Castro is in a "great battle for life," unless he also expressed optimism about the 79-year- aged Cuban leader's recovery.

"From here, let's pray to jehovah for Fidel and his recuperation and he's fighting a great battle," Chavez said in a televised dialect from the eastern state of Anzoategui.

His statement was the most numerous dire yet from a finish ally of Castro in describing his condition.

Chavez said he had received a message from Castro forward Wednesday "that filled me with more optimism, with more faith."

"Among other things Fidel told me . . 'I keep saying Chavez, jehovah help Chavez and his friends,' " Chavez said.

"I wrote to him in my possess handwriting last night, in the early morning, to jaculate it with the messenger who was returning immediately: 'You are fighting a great battle each day, all these nights.' "

Castro said July 31 he was stepping aside temporarily, granting his powers to his brother Raul as head of the control and the Communist Party in the way that he could recover from intestinal surgery

Neither brother has been seen in public since then. Details of Castro's condition, his ailment and the surgical proceeding he underwent are being treated as a "state secret"

Chavez said Thursday that in his alphabetic character to Castro, "I told him, 'Here we're with you each second, every minute, every hour, each day, every night of that great battle for life that you are fighting from your heart, from your soul'

"It's a battle, and I know, Fidel, that we're going to win it, too. We are prevailing and we will prevail," Chavez said.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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