Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew to Cuba earlier this week to meet with Cuban ex-leader Fidel Castro and said his ailing Communist mentor had fully recovered, officials said on Saturday.

Upon his return to Caracas Friday from the unannounced visit, Chavez said the man he considers his "ideological father" has "fully recovered" from the illness that forced him to cede power in July 2006 to his brother, President Raul Castro, now 78, a move formalized in early 2008.

The two leftist stalwarts held two "lengthy" meetings that began Thursday and continued through Friday afternoon, the Cuban government said in a statement.

Chavez said he was surprised to see Fidel Castro stay up until 8:00 pm on Thursday to toast with wine and eat cake to celebrate his 83rd birthday, along with his wife, children, grandchildren and Raul Castro.

He also gave his longtime friend two charcoal drawings: one of Venezuelan independence hero Francisco de Miranda and another of Cuban figure Jose Marti.

Despite swirling rumors of ill health due to his absence from public view since July 2006, images released on his birthday Thursday showed Fidel Castro flanked by a group of US clerics belonging to the Pastors for Peace organization that visited Cuba July 24 to August 3.

Castro, who remains head of the Cuban Communist Party, is no longer in office but his birthday was marked across the island in concerts, a photographic exhibition and other events.

The leader of the 1959 Cuban revolution that brought communism to the country also issued a bleak warning over US handling of the global economic crisis in a column on Thursday.

The Chavez government is Cuba's main ally, and supplies the Caribbean island with some 95,000 barrels of oil per day on preferential terms, while about 30,000 Cuban doctors, dentists, nurses and technicians provide health care in Venezuela.

-AFP