Speaking to about 200,000 people in this western tobacco-growing province, Castro focused his remarks on the Bush.

If Bush reaches the White House, Castro said, he should not waste his time becoming the 10th American president to try to change Cuba's political system.

Forty-seven years after his attack on a military barracks that launched the Cuban Revolution, Castro's mission is to get the U.S. to ease off this communist island.

Castro blasted a stance the Republican Party adopted during its national convention, saying it catered to the "terrorist and annexationist mafia of Miami"--a reference to Cuban-American exiles.

Castro said Bush's support for a missile defense system could take the world on a "new, dangerous and extremely costly arms buildup."

Castro did not spare Gore in his comments. "Perhaps never in times so complex and chaotic ... has there been a competition between two candidates more boring and insipid," he said.

Fidel is correct, as usual. The candidates are boring and insipid, unlike when Fidel ran against, uh, what's-his-name?