Media reports have speculated that the Cuban revolutionary leader's health has deteriorated further in recent weeks after Castro disappeared from public life and his last regular newspaper article was published on December 15.
However, this week Castro met with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the first time he has held a meeting with a foreign leader since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Cuba in November. The Argentine leader told journalists as she left for a visit to Venezuela that Castro "looked well."
Following his meeting with Fernandez de Kirchner the 82-year-old former president published a new article on the visit and Tuesday's inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama.
On Obama's inauguration, Castro said "No one can doubt the sincerity of his words," but said that he doubted that the United States' 44th president will be able to overcome the "contradictions of the system."
Castro said in his online column published on Thursday that he had decided to reduce his articles, "So as not to interfere with the comrades in the government or the party to make decisions considering the objective difficulties emerging from the world economic crisis."
"I feel fine, but insist that noone should feel bound by my [any article in] Reflections, my state of health, or even my death," the Cuban leader wrote.
Castro said that he has been "reading through all of his articles and other materials that have been compiled over the last 50 years."
"I have had the rare privilege to follow events for such a long time," he wrote. "I get information and think quietly about events."
"I don't expect to enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term ends," he wrote.
Castro underwent intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother Raul in July 2006 after ruling his country for 47 years. He has not appeared in public since.
The last photograph of him was published on November 18 last year after a meeting with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
On January 11, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said that it is unlikely Fidel Castro will be seen in public again and that his image in uniform "will remain in our memories."
