WASHINGTON, Aug 28: In a new article on Tuesday, Cuban leader Fidel Castro chastised US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for calling for democracy in his country but touted them as a winning combination.

Castro belittled recent comments on Cuba by the two rivals for the Democratic nomination, but he made no reference to his health amid rampant speculation about the ailing leader’s condition since he handed over power to his brother more than a year ago.

“Today there is talk of an apparently invincible ticket combining Hillary for president and Obama as vice president,” Castro’s newspaper commentary said, referring to the top two contenders vying for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 White House race.

“Both feel they have the sacred right to demand a ‘democratic government in Cuba’,” Castro wrote in the article entitled “Submission to Imperial Politics” appearing in the daily Granma.

“They are not practising politics. They are playing a card game on a Sunday afternoon,” said Castro, who described Hillary as the political “heir” to her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

Castro also criticised the US electoral system in which a candidate without a majority of the popular vote can win the presidency, citing George W. Bush’s electoral college victory in the contested 2000 election against Al Gore.

He alleged Bush “needed electoral fraud” to secure the pivotal state of Florida, where he charged right-wing Cuban exiles were “experts” in the subject.

Castro’s comments came after Obama and Clinton argued over US foreign policy and Washington’s approach to Cuba.

Obama on Saturday promised a more open policy towards Cuba, saying he would allow unrestricted travel to Cuba and money remittances unlike the Bush administration.

“Just 90 miles from here there is a country where justice and freedom are out of reach,” Obama told a crowd in Miami over the weekend.

“That’s why my policy toward Cuba will be guided by one word: liberty.” Clinton’s campaign reportedly said the New York senator did not favour any major change in Cuba policy until there was democratic change.—AFP