More vigorous Fidel Castro shown on Cuban TV

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Fidel Castro appeared more vigorous on Sunday in the first television images of the Cuban leader to be broadcast in Cuba in four months, adding weight to reports that he has put his health crisis behind him.

Castro appeared talking animatedly, standing in a track suit during a meeting on Saturday afternoon with Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh.

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since emergency bowel surgery forced him to hand over power 10 months ago to his brother Raul Castro for the first time since coming to power in a 1959 revolution.

But he looked healthier and more alert than in the last video images shown of him in Cuba on January 30 during a visit by his leftist ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

He hugged Manh warmly at the end of the two-hour meeting. Cuba's Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) newspaper called the encounter "emotional, intense and fraternal."

"Vietnam is a country that we will never forget," said Castro, who visited Hanoi in 1973 in the midst of the Vietnam war with the United States.

Manh said Castro spoke at length about Cuba's "energy revolution" to save electricity, and they discussed the situation in Latin America.

"He was very happy. I was overcome with emotion. He spoke about many things. They were very deep," Manh said later at a meeting with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage.