Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister who turned 75 in June, also did not appear on television and made no statement on his own. For decades the constitutional successor to his brother, Raul Castro has assumed a more public profile in recent weeks.

Fidel Castro last appeared in public Wednesday as he marked the 53rd anniversary of his July 26 barracks assault that launched the revolution. The Cuban leader seemed thinner than usual and somewhat weary during a pair of long speeches in eastern Cuba.

"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," Castro's letter read. Extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure."

The calm delivery of the announcement appeared to signal that there would be an orderly succession should Fidel become permanently incapacitated.

Cuban exiles celebrated in the streets of Miami, but Havana's streets were quiet overnight as Cubans awaited further word on Castro's condition.

It was unknown when or where the surgery took place, or where Castro was recovering.

Ongoing intestinal bleeding can be serious and potentially life-threatening, said Dr. Stephen Hanauer, gastroenerology chief at the University of Chicago hospitals. He said it was difficult to deduce the cause of Castro's bleeding without knowing what part of the digestive tract was affected.

Ulcers are a common cause of bleeding in the stomach or upper intestine, while a condition called diverticulosis also can provoke bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over age 60, said Hanauer. He said this condition involves weakened spots in the intestinal lining that form pouches, which can become inflamed and provoke bleeding.

Fidel seemed optimistic of recovery, asking that celebrations scheduled for his 80th birthday on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

With Havana's streets calm, an electronic news ticker at the U.S. diplomatic mission provided the only clue that something dramatic had occurred inside Cuba's government: "All Cubans, including those under the dictatorship, can count on our help and support. We respect the wishes of all Cubans."

Waiters at a popular cafe in Old Havana were momentarily stunned by the news, but quickly returned to work.

"He'll get better, without a doubt," said Agustin Lopez, 40. "There are really good doctors here, and he's extremely strong."

But Martha Beatriz Roque, a leading Cuban government opponent in Havana, said she believed Castro must be gravely ill to have stepped aside - even temporarily.

"No one knows if he'll even be alive Dec. 2 when he's supposed to celebrate his birthday," she said in a telephone interview. She said opposition members worried they could be targeted for repression during a government change - especially if authorities fear civil unrest.

White House spokesman Peter Watkins said U.S. authorities were monitoring the situation: "We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the day of Cuba's freedom."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Castro's strongest international ally, was the first foreign leader to react to the news, expressing his distress during a visit to Vietnam. He said he called the Cuban leader's office after hearing the news.

"Waking up this morning and receiving that news, you may see what feeling one would have toward a good friend," Chavez said Tuesday morning. "When there is such an announcement, it's worrisome."

"We wish President Fidel Castro will recover rapidly," Chavez said. "Viva Fidel Castro."

Across the Florida straits in Miami, exiles waved Cuban flags on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouting "Cuba! Cuba! Cuba!" as drivers honked their horns. Over nearly five decades, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled Castro's rule, many of them settling in Miami.

Castro has been in power since the Jan. 1, 1959 triumph of the armed revolution that drove out dictator Fulgencio Batista. He has been the world's longest-ruling head of government and his ironclad rule has ensured Cuba's place among the world's five remaining communist countries, along with China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.

Castro resisted U.S. demands for multiparty elections and an open economy and insisted his socialist system would long outlive him.

The son of a prosperous plantation owner, Castro's official birthday is Aug. 13, 1926, although some say he was born a year later.

Talk of Castro's mortality was taboo until June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although Castro quickly recovered, many Cubans understood for the first time that their leader would eventually die.

Castro shattered a kneecap and broke an arm when he fell after a speech on Oct. 20, 2004, but laughed off rumors about his health, most recently a 2005 report he had Parkinson's disease.

But the Cuban president also said he would not insist on remaining in power if he ever became too sick to lead: "I'll call the (Communist) Party and tell them I don't feel I'm in condition ... that please, someone take over the command."

The president apparently was referring to a recently updated plan that calls for diplomacy enlisting Cuban citizens and other nations to demand a new government after Castro dies. The plan, released last month by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, recommends that the United States spend $80 million over two years for food and other aid to Cuba to encourage multiparty elections, free markets and democratic institutions.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a member of the House International Relations Committee who has long opposed Castro, said even a temporary relinquishment of power by the dictator is "a great day for the Cuban people and for their brothers and sisters in exile."

"Fidel Castro has only brought ruin and misery to Cuba so if he is incapacitated, even for a short period of time, it is a marvelous moment for the millions of Cubans who live under his iron fisted rule and oppressive state machinery," she said. "I hope this is the beginning of the end for his despised regime."

The State Department declined comment, but the United States has been open about the fact it is prepared to go to some lengths to ensure that the communist system Castro created goes out with him.

It is official U.S. policy to "undermine" Cuba's planned succession from Castro to his brother Raul, to whom Fidel Castro temporarily transferred power Monday, citing an operation over an intestinal problem and internal bleeding.

The transfer marked the first time that Castro, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of absolute rule.

Watkins, the White House spokesman, said the administration was "monitoring the situation," though he did not provide details. Cuba itself has disclosed little about the dictator's circumstances beyond Monday's statement about Castro's operation.

Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, resisted repeated U.S. attempts to oust him and survived communism's demise elsewhere.

Cuba has been under a U.S. financial embargo since 1961, two years after the Castro came to power with the ousting of then-President Fulgencio Batista.

The Security Council gave Tehran an August 31 deadline to comply, and said that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei should then report back on what Iran has done to fall into line.

But the text of the resolution held off from an immediate threat of sanctions, which have been opposed by Russia and China, and said any punitive action would have to be the subject of further discussions.

A state radio commentator said the resolution was merely fresh proof that "Western countries want to prevent Iran from having an independent nuclear energy programme."

"A powerful Iran which masters the latest technology is against their interests," the commentator said, adding that "history has shown that when the people have a goal and the government supports them, nothing can hold them back."

Iran insists it only wants to enrich uranium to make reactor fuel and that this is a right enshrined by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Demands for a suspension stem from widespread suspicions the country wants the capacity to make weapons-grade uranium.

An editorial in the ultra-hardline Siasat Rouz newspaper called on the government to quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- something officials have already threatened to do if the pressure mounts.

"In preparing the final battle, we should at first attack US bases in neighbouring countries and then clear the region of this infected microbe," the paper said, while also calling on Iran to rally "friendly governments and Muslim people ready to carry out suicide attacks".

The hardline Jomhuri Eslami paper said the resolution was "unacceptable", complaining that the United States was meanwhile "preventing any move to bring a ceasefire" between
Israel and Iran's Lebanese allies Hezbollah.

"It shows the Security Council has sadly become an instrument in the hands of the Americans," the paper fumed. "Iran will undoubtably respond by suspending its adhesion to the NPT."

The hardline Kayhan newspaper, whose firebrand editor is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, played down the importance of the resolution.

"Experts believe that this resolution does not carry the necessary weight and that the objective... is to threaten Iran rather than take action," the paper said.

Senior government officials are expected to speak on the issue later Tuesday.

On Monday, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Iran would head "down the road of further isolation" if it failed to heed the Security Council call.

"The international community has offered them a pathway... so that we can have negotiations," said McCormack.

"They don't have anywhere to hide. They don't have any protectors," he said. "It is in their interest, it is in the interest of the international community for them to comply."

Neither minister made any comment after their talks which lasted more than two hours.

Ahead of the talks, Mottaki implicitly criticised the United States for abetting the Israeli offensive.

"We consider any party which backs the Zionist enemy ... in its aggression ... and foils efforts to stop the aggression as partners and responsible for the crimes committed against Lebanon," he said after talks with his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Sallukh, a Hezbollah ally.

He also criticised the United Nations and its agencies for failing to do more to halt the Israeli offensive, launched after Shiite militants of Hezbollah captured two soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12.

"After three weeks, those organizations did not do their duties toward that aggression," he said.

Earlier Monday, Douste-Blazy said Iran was a key player in the Middle East and "plays an important stabilising role" in the region.

"It is clear that we cannot accept a destabilisation of Lebanon that could lead to a destabilisation of the region. In the region there is a great country like Iran which is respected and which plays an important stabilising role in the region," he said.

"We think more than ever that the Iranians are an important and respected actor."

His comments came despite outspoken criticism of Iran from the United States which has accused the Islamic regime and its key regional ally Syria of arming Hezbollah and encouraging its attacks on Israel.

Iran insists it gives only moral support to the Shiite militant group.

Mottaki, who arrived from neighbouring Syria earlier Monday, was due to meet Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday.

The Joint Chiefs issued a statement saying the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission -- monitoring a truce that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War and has left the two countries technically at war since then -- will look into the skirmish.

One of the shots hit the guard post, causing South Korean troops to immediately return fire, the official said.

Last October, North Korea fired a bullet toward a South Korean guard post and the South returned fire. The two navies clashed along a disputed maritime border in 2002, resulting in deaths and casualties on both sides.

MISSILE TESTS

Ties have become notably strained since North Korea defied international warnings, including from
South Korea, and test-fired seven missiles on July 5th.

After a frosty inter-Korean ministerial meeting days after the tests, Seoul said it would suspend food aid until Pyongyang returned to stalled six-country talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

North Korean delegates stormed out of the meeting and said the South would "pay a price" for spoiling inter-Korean ties.

Since then, North Korea has halted several projects with the South, including the reunion of families separated by the war.

On Tuesday, North Korea said it would be difficult to hold a joint ceremony to mark the August 15, 1945 anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule over the peninsula due to recent flooding, a South Korean committee preparing for the event said.

North Korea has stationed most of its 1.2 million-man army near the DMZ. South Korea has more than 650,000 troops, who are supported by about 30,000 U.S. troops.

In another sign of the souring relationship, a South Korean commission issued a report on Tuesday reiterating North Korea was to blame for the 1987 explosion of a Korean Air jet that killed 115.

Seoul has avoided bringing up that incident in recent years in the interest of its "sunshine policy" of engagement.

The United States put North Korea on its list of countries that support terrorism after the airliner bombing. North Korea has been keen to discuss how to get off that list in direct talks with Washington.

North Korean agents were also accused of attempting a presidential assassination in 1974, and in 1983 set off a bomb in Myanmar that killed 17 senior South Korean officials.

The decision was reached after protests at the airport and discussions between various government departments, led by the Foreign Office.

US flights to Israel used RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk rather than Prestwick airport last weekend, prompting protests from about 30 peace campaigners at the military base.

'Not happy'

BBC News understands that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett last week pressed for all US flights through the UK to be suspended while hostilities in Lebanon continued.

But her concerns were rejected by Downing Street.

The latest move means the planes will at least not pass through civilian bases any longer.

Mrs Beckett last week opened up a rare public rift with the Americans when she said she was "not happy" because it appeared the US planes at Prestwick had not followed correct procedures for transporting hazardous materials.

She raised the issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and threatened to make a formal protest if the reports proved to be true.

Her worries were seized by government critics as evidence that America was taking British support for granted.

But the White House dismissed Mrs Beckett's protest, saying the Department of Defense believed the "paperwork" had been in order.

"Osama bin Laden was brought from Afghanistan by the Americans," Mr. Khan says amid chuckles. "They should know where he is."

In late May, ABC news cited unnamed Pakistani government sources as saying that bin Laden and his entourage had moved down from the mountains of Afghanistan to Kumrat, just 40 miles from the Afghan border.

But the area, although insular and strictly religious, seems an unlikely place for the world's most wanted terrorist, locals and analysts say. Harboring him would only undercut the main impulse of the region: protecting its religious mores, pristine beauty, and tourism from the encroachment of the Pakistani government and its American allies.

A recent visit to the far-flung area bolstered this view, underscoring the difficulties of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which remains largely a series of unfruitful extrapolations from uncertain leads.

"It's all guesswork. If people knew exactly where he was, then it would be no problem catching him," says Lt. Gen. Talat Masood (ret.), a defense analyst in Islamabad.

Past and present circumstances might suggest Dir Valley as a viable refuge for bin Laden.

The rugged and forested area was once considered the stronghold of the banned extremist outfit, Tehrik-e-Nifaz Shariah Muhammadi, which sent thousands of volunteers to assist the Taliban after the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Local officials insist the power of the group has been all but shattered, but recent violence in and around Dir indicates that extremism remains.

Internet cafe, music store bombed

In late June an organization calling itself Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar bombed an Internet cafe and a music store in Dir city, and it threatened to target other establishments spreading "obscenity" in the area.

Then in early July, six paramilitary personnel were killed by a remote-controlled bomb in lower Dir valley. A high-ranking police official in Dir city, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, described the attack as the possible beginning of a longer campaign against the military.

"You can call the incident the start of a process of backlash on the military as a result of the operations being carried out in [Waziristan] and Balochistan," he says.

Despite such circumstances, however, a recent visit to the region found residents and officials dismissive of the claim that bin Laden was hiding in Kumrat and far more concerned with promoting the area's natural beauty for tourists.

"I don't think people would put themselves at risk for the sake of Osama bin Laden. I haven't heard anything to date about Osama bin Laden - neither from intelligence agencies or the people," says Mohammed Nisar Wardag, the mayor of Dir.

Outsiders are noted immediately

Entering the main village of Kumrat, which is split by a simple dirt road, has the air of puncturing a bubble: a quiet, self-contained world busy at bettering itself.

Men saw great slabs of wood for construction, and women work the lush fields, their bodies and faces completely covered in billowing shrouds, which locals say they wear even indoors.

Troops of young girls, meanwhile, wash their faces in the river on the way back from the madrassah, evidently the only school in town. Because all this takes place just beside the road, outsiders are noticed immediately, and greeted with respect but an air of suspicion.

Abdul Rasheed, a local resident, says the bin Laden rumors are just propaganda. "We know these mountains, these people. No outsider can hide here. We welcome tourists, but not Osama."

Many others share the opinion that Kumrat would never welcome the outside attention that bin Laden would bring, even though it is a pocket of strict religiosity.

The region has a reputation for its hearty dislike of the outside world - aside from tourists. Locals detest the presence of the government, complaining that it extracts the area's forest wealth without compensation.

They are also against international nongovernmental organizations because they are believed to be non-Muslim and their representatives are prone to dressing immodestly. Residents would therefore not risk sheltering bin Laden, observers add, since it would invite further government interference, or, at worst, direct intervention by the US military.

The police official even advised that Americans not enter the area, since opposition to the war in Afghanistan runs high. The official said that, while there were no legal injunctions against visiting, he would stop Americans who attempted to do so, as he had done in the recent past.

Such measures were for their own safety, the official insisted, and not because the presence of bin Laden was a reality.

"This is just a rumor," he said, referring to bin Laden. "[People in Kumrat] are such rigid people. If [bin Laden] was there he would be cut to pieces. Because of the temperament of the people there, they cannot keep something like that secret."