Castro's comments Wednesday to a Havana University audience were perceived by some as approving the reforms launched by his brother, who has announced the dismissal of 500,000 public employees, an expansion of private economic activity and massive cuts in state subsidies.

``Fidel recognizes that he is happy, because the country is moving despite all the challenges,'' said a report on the university meeting published in the official newspaper Granma.

Castro has never before commented publicly on his brother's reforms, but one news agency headlined its report on his speech as, ``Fidel Castro endorses his brother Raúl's economic reform.''

The former leader also praised China, whose mix of capitalist economics with authoritarian Communist Party rule has been repeatedly held up as a possible model for Cuba.

``China is worth studying,'' the Granma report said.

Yet, the bulk of his university speech was a virtual word-for-word repetition of his 2005 speech to a similar university audience.

``I confess that I was surprised by the currency of the ideas'' in the 2005 speech, Castro declared.

Castro reread parts of the speech in which he seemed pragmatic, acknowledging that Cuba had made mistakes in its communist path and echoing his brother's calls for cutbacks in state spending.

``Subsidies or grants, only for essential and vital things,'' he declared to the audience. ``The only thing not allowed is the irresponsible . . . squandering of resources.''

Castro also, however, reread parts of the speech that showed him arguing that more state controls were the answer to some of Cuba's problems.

He referred to his 2005 complaint that about 3,000 state entities were handling scarce hard currencies ``and deciding with a lot of looseness . . . if I buy something or other, if I paint, if I buy a better car.''

jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com