Cuban President Raul Castro dismissed rumors that his older brother Fidel Castro was at death's door, saying on Wednesday he was mentally and physically active despite a long illness that has kept him out of public view.

Speculation had been rising that the ailing 82-year-old was in serious condition after he failed to attend celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution that put him in power on January 1, 1959 and stopped publishing in mid-December what had been a steady stream of newspaper columns.