Former Cuban president and revolutionary icon Fidel Castro has made his first public appearance in more than a year.

Mr Castro, 88, was photographed by the state-run newspaper Granma which showed him shaking hands with Venezuelan supporters through the windows of a minivan.

Granma published four photographs of a bearded Mr Castro, wearing a blue and white tracksuit, a black cap and a hearing aid.

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Mr Castro led Cuba for nearly half a century before handing over power to his brother, Raul, in 2006 because of ill health.

He has kept a low public profile ever since, with his last appearances on January 8, 2014 when he attended a gallery opening for a Cuban artist friend, and appeared frail in images that were not shown on official state media.

The state-run newspaper said he appeared in public this week to welcome a delegation from Venezuela that had been invited to the communist island.

Granma said Mr Castro “greeted, one by one and without any difficulties, the Venezuelans,” who were left impressed “by Castro’s lucidity and his attention to the details of what is happening in Venezuela”.

The former Cuban leader was particularly close to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who provided Havana with a steady supply of cut-rate oil and brought in thousands of Cuban advisers.

Cuba and the United States late last year announced a historic bilateral approach to restoring ties, decades after severing diplomatic relations.

AFP