Castro addresses audience in by cellphone

Carcas, Venezuela
When Cuba's Fidel Castro couldn't Honor an invitation to join Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a speech on Friday, Chavez called Castro on a cellphone from a packed Caracas theatre and broadcast the conversation through the microphone.

"Brother, give your regards to the people gathered here," Chavez said.

The crowd broke into applause as Castro's raspy voice came crackling across the microphone.

"You've put me on three times and I keep saying the same thing," said Castro, lamenting the bad connection.

Chavez held the event to Honor Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela to help the nation's poor residents in exchange for crude from the world's No 5 oil exporter.

When the phone call cut off, Chavez joked that his arch-rival US President George Bush was responsible.

"It looks like Mr Danger intervened there," Chavez said, using his nickname for the US president.

Chavez, elected in 1998, has strengthened relations with Cuba as part of a promised socialist "revolution" to end poverty. Increased economic ties have helped revive Cuba's economy, which was devastated in the 1990s by the collapse of the Soviet Union.