New video shows talkative Chavez

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (L) and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez read a copy of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) newspaper ''Granma'' in Havana June 28, 2011, in this handout picture.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was shown and heard chatting animatedly with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in new video footage released on Wednesday as rumors swirled over his health.

Unlike brief extracts shown on Tuesday night, Chavez, 56, was heard talking this time, discussing headlines from Tuesday's edition of the Cuban Communist Party's daily Granma.

"Look how Fidel is reading, without spectacles. Me, too, though with a bit of trouble!" Chavez jokes with his friend and mentor Castro, after the pair strolled together in a garden, presumed to be at Havana's Cimeq hospital.

Chavez disappeared from public view after surgery in Cuba on June 10 for what the government described as an abscess in his pelvis.

His prolonged stay in Havana has, however, spawned speculation he may have something worse like cancer.

Later in the video, the famously garrulous pair are seen sitting indoors, both dressed in track suits, having a lengthy conversation about Latin American politics.

Presenting the images on state TV, Chavez's vice-president, Elias Jaua, said they were proof his boss was on the road to recovery. "They have comforted the nation and lifted moral."

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Daniel Wallis)