Cuban President Fidel Castro celebrated his 77th birthday on Wednesday with a cherished present: defeat of his arch-enemy the United States at the hands of Cuba's baseball team.

Cuban President Fidel Castro hands a diploma to an unidentified medical student, during a ceremony at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, August 13, 2003. Castro, who turned 77 on Wednesday, addressed the nation during the graduation of 4,000 medical students. Castro is the world's longest ruling leader and has been in power since the 1959 revolution.  [Reuters]

The Cubans beat the United States 3-2 on Tuesday night in the Dominican Republic to win the Pan American Games baseball gold medal for the ninth time in a row.

The triumphant players chanted "Viva Cuba, Viva Fidel" on the field at the end of the game and dedicated their gold medals to Castro for his birthday.

At a concert staged by Cuba's Communist Youth on Havana's Malecon waterfront, 3,000 people watched the baseball victory on a giant screen and, at midnight, performers cut a large cake for Castro as the band played the happy birthday tune.

The Cuban leader was feted on Wednesday evening at Havana's Karl Marx Theater where he defended Cuba's communist government, which has faced widespread international condemnation this year for cracking down on dissidents.

Cuba has the world's "most humanitarian" social system, with five times more doctors per citizen than rich countries like Britain, he told 4,000 medical graduates.

In a swipe at the United States, Castro said Cuba, "a small island next to a giant," had survived four decades of American trade sanctions and the collapse of its former international mentor the Soviet Union.

Castro, the world's longest ruling leader who has been in power since a 1959 revolution, usually keeps his birthday celebrations low-key.

But Cuban television marked the occasion with a documentary on the Cuban leader in its midday news broadcast, showing images from when he was a young guerrilla fighter to today's grandfather figure greeting Cubans young and old.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, heading one the world's last Communist states along with China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba, sent Castro birthday wishes, a North Korean diplomat said.

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