An ailing 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president February 19, 2008 after foiling US attempts to topple him for nearly half-a-century -- leaving on his own terms by clearing the way for his brother Raul to take power.

The end of Castro's rule-- the longest in the world for a head of government -- freed 76-year-old Raul to implement reforms he had hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. But US President George W Bush rejected any Castro in power, hoping for what he called a democratic transition.

"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in a letter published February 19 in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."

It wasn't until 5:00 am, several hours after Castro's message was posted on the Internet, that official radio began spreading the news across the island. Cubans seemed to go about their business as usual, having seen Castro's resignation as inevitable, but with a certain sadness.

"It is like losing a father," said Luis Conte, an elderly night watchman at a museum. Or "like a marriage -- a very long one that is over."

Cuban dissidents welcomed the news as a possible first step toward possible change.

Moderate opposition leader Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a former commander who fought alongside Castro in the revolution, expressed hopes that whoever followed Fidel "will have freedom to launch economic and political changes as well".

"History will say if it is a good day, depending upon what happens," added Oswaldo Paya, whose pro-democracy Varela Project sought an unsuccessful referendum on civil rights and electoral reforms.

"The change of a person does not signify the change of a system," Paya noted, but said Cubans are ready for peaceful changes. "We have always maintained hope, and today we are more hopeful because the people are vibrating" with emotion, he said.

Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, after undergoing intestinal surgery. Since then, the elder Castro had not been seen in public, appearing only sporadically in official photographs and videotapes and publishing dense essays about mostly international themes as his younger brother consolidated his rule.

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