Fidel makes latest appearance as Cuba says no rush on reform

School children wave flags under the statue of revolution leader Che Guevara during an event marking the 57th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution in Santa Clara July 26, 2010. On July 26, Cubans celebrate the 57th anniversary of the July 26, 1953 rebel assault which former Cuban leader Fidel Castro led on the Moncada army barracks. The attack, held during the annual carnival festivities, was a military disaster with many rebels killed, but started the revolution that led Castro to topple dictator Fulgencio Batista.

SANTA CLARA, Cuba (Reuters) - Cuba said it would not rush into reforms for its troubled economy, while former leader Fidel Castro made his latest public appearance in ceremonies on Monday marking the anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution.

Cuban television showed Castro, 83, at a somber ceremony in Havana's Revolution Square, then in a lengthy meeting with Cuban intellectuals and artists where he answered questions about a variety of topics for more than an hour.

It was the latest in a string of appearances by Castro who has recently emerged from four years of seclusion that followed emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

In the last two appearances, he has donned a military shirt, which has raised eyebrows because he wore a military uniform for most of his 49 years in power.

But the main event was in the central city of Santa Clara, where Vice President Juan Ramon Machado Ventura spoke to 90,000 people, while President Raul Castro looked on.

In a response to those pushing for faster change on the communist-led island, he said the government would move deliberately and stay loyal to revolutionary ideals.

"We will proceed with a sense of responsibility, step by step, at the rhythm we determine, without improvisation or haste so as not to make mistakes," said the veteran of the revolution and longtime Castro loyalist.

"We will continue the study, the analysis and the taking of decisions that lead to overcoming our deficiencies," he said. "We will not conduct ourselves by campaigns of the foreign press."

Machado Ventura spoke in front of a monument holding the remains of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine who helped lead the armed insurrection that began on July 26, 1953.

On that day, Fidel Castro led an assault by young rebels on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

The attack failed, with many of the rebels killed, but it marked the beginning of the end for the government of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on January 1, 1959.

While President Castro did not speak as expected at the Santa Clara ceremony, Cuban television later showed him addressing a Cuba-Venezuela summit in which the socialist allies said they had developed 139 projects on such things and energy and food production that they might do together.

"This constitutes a new type of relation," Castro said at the meeting, which took place at a resort island on Cuba's coast.

He also pledged to side with Venezuela against any aggression from Colombia, which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said may attack his oil-rich country in alliance with the United States.

Machado Ventura's words echoed previous statements by Raul Castro that the government must act deliberately to avoid mistakes that could endanger the future of Cuban communism when the current generation of leaders is gone.

Castro, 79, has tweaked the system to try to create incentives for greater productivity, but his efforts have not yet raised salaries for most Cubans, who receive social benefits but earn on average the equivalent of $18 a month.

Machado Ventura, 79, cited three 2008 hurricanes and the longstanding U.S. trade embargo against the island as principal causes for Cuba's current economic lethargy.

Raul Castro surprised many this month by agreeing to release 52 political prisoners in a deal with the Catholic Church that quieted international criticism about Cuba's human rights record.

But the prisoners were not mentioned by any of the leaders on Monday. Cuba views dissidents as mercenaries working with the United States to topple the communist government.

Fidel Castro ceded power provisionally to his brother at the time of surgery, then officially resigned in February 2008 and Raul Castro was elected his successor by the National Assembly.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was scheduled to speak at Monday's celebration, but canceled his trip due to the escalating tensions with neighboring Colombia.

(Editing by Jeff Franks and Doina Chiacu)