By Theresa Bradley

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro vowed to strengthen his military to deter an invasion that he said is being planned by U.S. President George W. Bush.

``Cuba will continue developing and perfecting the combat capacity of its people, including our modest but active and efficient defensive weapons industry, which increases our ability to face the invader wherever he is found,'' Castro wrote in an editorial published today in the Havana daily Granma.

Castro said the U.S. is also seeking to overthrow his Venezuelan ally President Hugo Chavez, who was ousted for two days in 2002 in what Castro called a U.S.-backed coup. The U.S. government has repeatedly denied any such involvement or plans.

Today's editorial is Castro's 18th since March, when he broke eight months of silence after undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily handing power to his brother, Raul. Castro, 80, who said today for the first time he'd been ``between life and death'' during his illness, has appeared on TV but not in public since his July 31 operation. Instead, he uses published ``Reflections'' in Granma as his chief means of communication.

``So far, the pattern of his reflections has been, `Okay, here's my legacy,' but this today is more political,'' said Jorge Pinon, a senior researcher at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.

``It expresses a hard line policy that the revolution will continue,'' Pinon said. ``He's basically throwing cold water on any political reform that we might have expected Raul Castro to implement.''

Venezuelan Oil

Castro's essay today repeated past criticisms of U.S. immigration policy and its 45-year-old trade embargo against the island. It said the fall of the Soviet Union had cost Cuba its main markets and suppliers, ushering in a period of hardship that enhanced the power of illegally traded U.S. dollars on the island and damaged Cuban ``social conscience.''

Recent supplies of subsidized Venezuelan oil have ``meant an important relief and opened new possibilities,'' helping Cuba overcome the economic crisis and begin to develop its own energy sources, too, Castro wrote.

He also lamented that so many nations invest their international currency reserves in U.S. Treasury bonds, which he said help to finance ``weapons of mass destruction'' that the U.S. uses to ``maintain its world tyranny.''

The editorial quoted a passage from U.S. journalist Bob Woodward's book ``State of Denial,'' recounting an anecdote in which Bush and General Jay Garner, a former top U.S. administrator in Iraq, joke that they'd rather invade Cuba than Iran, due to the island's superior rum, tobacco and women.

``I assure you that they'll never have Cuba!'' Castro wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theresa Bradley in Caracas at [email protected] .