Castro Re-elected to Sixth Term as Cuban President

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 07, 2003

Castro Re-elected to Sixth Term as Cuban President

Fidel Castro was re-elected by parliament Thursday afternoon to a sixth term as Cuba's President of the Council of State, Cuba's supreme governing body.

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Castro Re-Elected to 6th Term in Cuba

Fidel Castro was re-elected by parliament Thursday afternoon to a sixth term as Cuba's President of the Council of State, Cuba's supreme governing body.

After re-electing parliamentary leaders, the National Assembly unanimously chose Castro, 76, to the post which he will serve until 2008. Castro was elected by the National Assembly deputies to his fifth term five years ago.

Raul Castro, Cuban defense minister, was also unanimously elected as the first vice president of the Council of State.

The other vice presidents of the council include Gen. Abelardo Colome Ibarra, who is in charge of police and intelligence services as interior minister, and Carlos Lage Davila, who functions as cabinet secretary.

Deputies re-elected Ricardo Alarcon to his third five-year termas speaker of the parliament.

Addressing the inaugural session of the newly chosen National Assembly, Castro called on Iraq to dismantle chemical or biological weapons it may still have so as to give the United Sates no pretext for a military attack.

"We support the Iraqi government's decision to destroy its Al Samoud missiles. And we urge Iraq to destroy every last bit of any chemical or biological weapon that may remain, if any still exists,or could have been produced," Castro said.

"The government of the United States would have no legal or moral pretext whatsoever for attacking Iraq," he said.

"Only the full truth, irrefutably demonstrated to the world, could give the Iraqi people the moral force and total international support to defend their homeland and its integrity to their last drop of blood," Castro said.

"The battle for peace and the integrity of Iraq is a political battle, not a military one," he added.

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