2:05am GMT
* Cuba, Venezuela to continue economic cooperation
* Venezuela is Cuba's largest trading partner
* Cuba's Communist Party to hold first congress since 1997 (Adds quotes,
details, byline)
By Jeff Franks
HAVANA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Cuba and Venezuela celebrated their
decade-long socialist alliance on Monday in a ceremony that formally
extends an economic cooperation pact and should ensure a regular flow of
oil to Havana for another 10 years.
Cuban President Raul Castro also announced that Cuba's ruling Communist
Party would hold in April its first party congress since 1997 to decide
how best to strengthen the island's economy and assure that Cuban
socialism lives on after the current aging leadership is gone.
Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez extolled the extension of
the pact as a show of ongoing solidarity.
"This relationship has strengthened during the last 10 years and must
continue its ascent," Castro said to an audience of Cuban and Venezuelan
officials and Communist Party members.
"No difficulty has been able to paralyze the development of these ties,"
he said.
"This agreement was the founding stone ... for everything we have
achieved these 10 years, and for what we will continue achieving in the
10 to come and the 100 to come," Chavez said.
The two countries first signed what is called the Integral Cooperation
Accord in October 2000 and have increased their economic and political
ties ever since.
Their alliance is bound by a shared belief in socialist principles and
animosity toward the United States, which both Castro and Chavez
routinely refer to as "the empire."
Venezuela, South America's largest oil producer, is Cuba's largest
trading partner and has used its oil revenues to support Cuba's fragile
economy. It provides an estimated 115,000 barrels of oil daily to the
island at preferential prices in exchange for Cuba sending thousands of
doctors and other personnel to its South American ally.
Venezuela is also investing billions of dollars in upgrading Cuba's oil
infrastructure, particularly its refinery in Cienfuegos on the island's
southwestern coast where it is doubling its capacity and planning a
terminal for liquefied natural gas.
FIDEL AS 'FATHER'
The two governments also have joined in political efforts to encourage
left-wing governments in Latin America and reduce U.S. influence in the
region.
Chavez, a former paratrooper, has pushed his country on an increasingly
radical course since taking power in 1999, nationalizing many sectors of
the economy and declaring himself a Marxist.
He has a warm relationship with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whom
he has referred to as his ideological "father."
Fidel Castro, 84, ruled Cuba for 49 years after taking power in a 1959
revolution and transformed the island into a communist state.
After a lengthy illness, he resigned the presidency in 2008 and was
replaced by Raul Castro, his younger brother. He resurfaced in public
this summer after four years in seclusion, but was not present at
Monday's ceremony.
In 2004, Chavez and Fidel Castro formed ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas, to promote trade and cooperation and counter a
proposed U.S. free trade area for the Americas.
President Castro, 79, said the Communist Party congress will concentrate
"on the fundamental decisions of the updating of the Cuban economic model."
"The economic battle is today more than ever the principle work and the
center of ideological work of the (party) cadres, because on that
depends the preservation of our social system," he said.
In September, Castro unveiled Cuba's biggest economic reforms in years,
saying the government will cut half a million workers from state
payrolls and strengthen the private sector by granting 250,000 more
licenses for self-employment. (Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Todd
Eastham)
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