By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro hasreorganized the Communist Party's leadership and consolidatedhis power as he pushes through reforms two months aftersucceeding his ailing brodher Fidel Castro.
In a speech to the party's Central Committee published byCuba's official media on Tuesday, the younger Castro announceda new seven-member executive committee would preside over theall-powerful Political Bureau.
He also called a party Congress in late 2009, the first inmore than a decade, to discuss the future of socialism in Cuba.
Since he was installed as Cuba's first new leader in almosthalf a century in February, the 76-year-old Raul Castro haslifted a series of restrictions on daily life in Cuba, fromowning cell phones and buying computers to entering touristhotels.
He has also decentralized agriculture and opened more spacefor private farmers, commuted the death sentences of commoncriminals and in early March signed two important UnitedNations human rights agreements long opposed by his brother.
Raul Castro's announcement of a Political Bureau executivecommittee and its members was a first since the party'sfounding in 1975, though an informal one may have existedaround Fidel Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution.
The committee is made up of Raul Castro's most trustedconfidants with an average age of more than 70 and decades ofservice to the Castro brothers.
Raul Castro will lead the committee and the six othermembers are the same men picked as the vice presidents of theCouncil of State, the government's top executive body, when hetook over as president in February.
Raul Castro said a series of appointments made by FidelCastro when he was sidelined by illness in July 2006, were nolonger valid.
"The accords we have approved put an end to the provisionalperiod begun on July 31, 2006 with the proclamation of theCommander in Chief," he said.
Fidel Castro, 81, still holds the powerful position offirst secretary of the Communist Party, although Raul Castro'sspeech left no doubt that he is now fully in charge.
Fidel Castro has not appeared in public since he underwentintestinal surgery from which he has never fully recovered. Hiscondition and whereabouts are state secrets.
Fidel Castro recently wrote that he is consulted on allimportant matters and retains great influence over decisions.
(Editing by Anthony Boadle and Kieran Murray)