Cuba lawmakers to hear Fidel Castro nuclear fears

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro speaks during a meeting with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Havana August 1, 2010.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has called a special session of its parliament for Saturday to discuss warnings by former President Fidel Castro that the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

Castro said last week he wanted the parliament to address his repeated warnings that nuclear war was imminent if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tries to enforce international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities.

Castro, who has also predicted a U.S. clash with North Korea, urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to avoid a nuclear confrontation, which he described as "now virtually inevitable" in a posting on the www.cubadebate.cu website.

Since July, the leader of Cuba's Revolution, who turns 84 this month, has emerged from four years of seclusion following a 2006 illness and made several public appearances.

This has ignited widespread speculation that Castro, who formally handed over the presidency to his younger brother Raul Castro in 2008, wants to be more active again in the day-to-day life of communist-ruled Cuba.

The former president has met Cuban diplomats, economists and intellectuals in recent weeks, as well as visiting the national aquarium and launching a new book on the guerrilla war that brought him to power in 1959.

State media published an official note on Wednesday saying the August 7 national assembly session would "analyze diverse themes of interest concerning the international situation."

"Fidel's call for a special assembly session will now loom as a bellwether of the relative power between him and his brother," said Brian Latell, a former CIA officer and analyst on Cuba. He is a senior research associate at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

Latell said in a briefing note that Fidel Castro's latest declarations showed "his adamant opposition to any improvement of relations with Washington."

But Fidel Castro has remained mute over the cautious domestic reform policies of his younger brother, which included an announcement on Sunday that more self-employed workers would be allowed in the state-dominated economy.

(Writing by Marc Frank and Pascal Fletcher; editing by Xavier Briand)