HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) – Cuban President Fidel Castro said yesterday he underwent surgery and had temporarily handed power to his brother, Raul, for the first time in his 47 years atop the communist government.

Castro, who will turn 80 on August 13, made a “proclamation”, read on television, saying he had suffered from an “accident”, that he underwent surgery, and that he had passed power to his brother Raul, the minister of defence, 75.

The intense agenda of a recent trip to Argentina and to eastern Cuba touched off the need for complex surgery, he said in a statement read over radio and television by his personal secretary Carlos Valenciaga.

“Working day and night and barely sleeping has taken its toll on my health, which has withstood everything, has undergone extreme stress and has become brittle,” he said.

“That touched off an acute intestinal distress with sustained bleeding, which forced me to undergo delicate surgery,” he said.

The operation will “force me to forgo my responsibilities and duties for some weeks”, which is why he said he handed over power.

“I do delegate, provisionally, my duties as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Cuba, to the second secretary, comrade Raul Castro Ruz,” he said.

“I do delegate, provisionally, my duties as commander-in-chief of the heroic Revolutionary Armed Forces in the hands of the aforementioned comrade, Army General Raul Castro Ruz.”

“I do delegate, provisionally, my duties as president of the Counsel of State and of the government of the Republic of Cuba to first vice-president, comrade Raul Castro Ruz,” said the text read by Valenciaga.

Castro had recently spent three days travelling in the eastern part of Cuba, the provinces of Bayamo and Holguin, to preside over the celebration of the 53rd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Quarters, which marked the beginning of the Cuban revolution.

Castro, who has been in power since 1959, joked last week that he did not plan to be leading Cuba if and when he hits the 100-year mark.

Speculation about Castro’s health peaked after a fall in 2004, when he injured his right arm and left knee. Last November, the Cuban leader, who stopped smoking cigars in 1985 and now exercises every day, said he had recovered from these injuries.