The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has concluded that Cuban President Fidel Castro suffers from Parkinson?s disease and could have difficulty coping with the duties of office as his condition worsens, an official said on Wednesday. The assessment, completed in recent months, suggests the nonfatal but debilitating disease has progressed far enough to warrant questions among US policymakers about the communist country?s future in the next several years. ?The assessment is that he has the disease and that his condition has progressed. There appear to be more outward signs,? said an official.

Bush administration officials and members of Congress have already been briefed on the findings about Castro. The Cuban leader, 79, has been in power on the island of 11 million people since leading a 1959 revolution and has long been at ideological odds with Washington. But US diplomats played down the significance of any CIA assessment and said they were not using such intelligence to make policy decisions about Castro or Cuba.

?Do we see him losing his grip over the country? No,? said a State Department official, who asked not to be named because he was discussing intelligence conclusions. ?We are not in any way adapting how we plan for the day Castro is gone based on an assessment that he might have Parkinson?s.? The CIA based its assessment on a variety of evidence, including observations of Castro?s public appearances and the opinions of doctors employed by the espionage agency.

?If the assessment is correct, you could expect there to be effects on his ability to come to grips with fresh challenges over the next several years,? said the US official who has seen the CIA report. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the document is classified. ?It could have implications for the way Castro functions, and by natural course, the way the Cuban government functions,? the official added.