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 brother 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 given greaterautonomy to private farmers, commuted the death sentences ofcommon criminals and in early March signed two important UnitedNations human rights agreements long opposed by his brother.
All the changes are aimed at strengthening communist rule.
"The pragmatism of Raul Castro will continue to be thekeynote of his approach, and reforms will continue to beintroduced, and greater efficiency and productivityincreasingly demanded," said John Kirk, a historian atDalhousie University in Canada.
"This promises to be a period of significant change,designed to shore up the revolutionary process while usingradically different strategies," Kirk said.
FIDEL CASTRO APPOINTMENTS ENDED
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.
Cubans, many of whom remain loyal to Fidel Castro, haveresponded positively to the changes initiated by his brother,insisting they are simply a continuation and strengthening ofthe revolution.
Others see a marked change in leadership style since RaulCastro took over.
"The period of inventing solutions, of improvising isover," Havana handyman Jorge Hidalgo said.
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.
"The Raulista model is in part the institutionalization ofthe Revolution," said Frank Mora, a national security and Cubaexpert at the National War College in Washington. "Moving awayfrom voluntarism, mobilization, and improvisation thatcharacterized Fidelismo toward more regular, predictable andbureaucratic forms of governance."
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)