Chavez, Castro discuss food, oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez discussed the world's food, energy and financial crises during a private three-hour meeting with the ailing Fidel Castro, state media reported yesterday.

No details about Castro's state of health were released by the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma in its report on the Monday afternoon meeting.

The newspaper also released no new images of Castro, 81, who has not been seen in public since he fell ill nearly two years ago and was last seen in a photograph in January.