February 27, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 19, 1429

HAVANA, Feb 26: Raul Castro holds his first diplomatic encounter as president of a post-Fidel Castro Cuba on Tuesday, at a planned meeting with the number two official from the Vatican.

Two days after Cuba’s National Assembly selected him to succeed his older brother Fidel Castro as head of state, the new president was to hold his first meeting with a foreign dignitary, as Cubans and the rest of the world weighed the meaning of his formal ascent to power.

The meeting follows calls by the Vatican for reform on the communist-ruled island, and Cuban dissidents have called on Bertone to urge the new president to release the communist regime’s political prisoners.

Vatican Secretary of State Tarciscio Bertone said he expected “clarity” and “sincerity” in his talks with the new leader.

“I have come here at a special, extraordinary moment,” Bertone told a joint news conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Bertone hailed as “positive” the recent freeing of certain prisoners, but said he had not called for amnesties.

Cuban bishops issued a statement on Monday about the new parliament and Raul Castro, elected president on Sunday after 19 months standing in for his ailing brother, with old allies also filling key government posts.—AFP