Pope to meet Fidel Castro on Cuba visit

Cuban leaders insisted there would be no political reforms following the pope's visit, but Fidel Castro said he would "gladly" meet Benedict Wednesday before the open-air mass in Havana's Revolution Square. It is expected to draw as many as one million people.

As part of the first papal visit to Cuba in 14 years, the pope met President Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, and asked that Cuba declare Good Friday a national holiday.

The two also exchanged gifts, with Castro offering the pope a statue of Cuba's patron saint, Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, and the pope giving the Cuban leader a copy of Ptolemy's "Geography."

Pope Benedict is trying to encourage renewed faith in the mainly secular Cuba.

Last week, he said Marxism "no longer corresponds to reality."

Cuban vice president Marino Murillo has ruled out any major political reforms in the Americas' only one-party Communist state, insisting that democracy already exists on the island and the papal visit is a way to show the world that it is tolerant to religious expression.

Before flying to Havana, Benedict visited a shrine outside Santiago, Cuba's second largest city, to honour the country's patron saint.

Benedict's visit coincides with the 400th anniversary of the discovery of a small wooden statue of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre floating in the waters off eastern Cuba.

Authorities reportedly rounded up at least 150 dissidents in the days leading up to the pope's visit to thwart any possible demonstrations. Others have been barred from leaving their homes.

Catholics account for just 10% of Cuba's population of about 11 million. Cuba was officially atheist until the early 1990s.

After a visit by John Paul II in 1998, expectations ran high that the charismatic Polish pontiff might help spark change after decades of one-party rule.

But more than a decade later, the country remains isolated and its state-run economy is feeble. Cuban workers struggle to survive on a paltry salary of $20 a month.