Bush wishes Cuba's Castro would disappear

NEWPORT, Rhode Island (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush made plain his feelings about Fidel Castro on Thursday -- wishing the Cuban leader would disappear.

"One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away," Bush said in answer to a question after a speech at the Naval War College.

Asked whether Bush was wishing Castro dead, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "The president was commenting on an inevitable event."

Castro has long been a thorn in the side of U.S. presidents, defying them and outlasting them in office.

Documents released by the CIA this week showed that the spy agency worked with three American mobsters in a botched attempt to assassinate Castro in the early 1960s.

Castro, who has long accused U.S. leaders of wanting him dead, in an editorial published on Monday accused Bush of "authorizing and ordering" an attempt on his life, but provided no evidence to back up the claim.

He has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July last year, when he handed over power temporarily to his younger brother, Raul.

But the convalescing 80-year-old revolutionary has published several editorials recently in which he has urged Cubans to remain defiant in the face of criticism from foreign countries, especially the United States, which has imposed an economic embargo on the island for 45 years.