Havana  - For the second time in little over a week, retired iconicCuban leader Fidel Castro met with a high-level dignitary visiting the Caribbean island, keeping is meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday under wraps.

Medvedev had already finished the official portion of his visit with Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel's brother who took over as president earlier this year.

Medvedev's official visit of less than 24 hours was the first by a Russian president to Cuba in eight years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia stopped pouring financial aid into Cuba.

Fidel Castro met with Medvedev at the secret place where he has been recovering for over two years from an unspecified condition that led him to relinquish his near half-century grip on power, first temporarily and definitively in February.

Russian delegation sources said the meeting lasted "over an hour," and that the leaders discussed bilateral cooperation as well as international affairs.

Last week, Castro, 82, met with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, who said he found him "recovered" and "energetic."

Castro has not been seen in public since giving up power to his brother Raul Castro in late July 2006.

Cuban President Raul Castro described Medvedev's visit as "magnificent."

"It has been a magnificent visit," Raul Castro told reporters, after he and Medvedev laid a wreath at the Mausoleum of the Soviet Internationalist Soldier, which honours 68 soldiers who died in Cuba in 1962-1966, either while taking part in disaster relief work or as a result of accidents.

Cuba was the last stop on Medvedev's tour of Latin America, during which he also visited Brazil and Venezuela, after attending the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) summit in Peruvian capital Lima.

On Thursday, Medvedev said in Havana that "Latin America is a big region and to put things simply and clearly, we have never really had a serious presence here. Our presence in the region has been episodic."

"We should work together in all the areas that bind our countries together in a partnership and full-fledged economic, cultural, humanitarian and military ties, and this is nothing to be shy about," he said.

Cuban officials noted that the meetings took place in an atmosphere of "friendship, understanding and mutual respect." (dpa)