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Pope meets President Raul Castro in Havana
Pope Benedict XVI meets Cuban President Raul Castro on the second day of his visit to the communist-run island, and is to meet Fidel Castro later.
March 28, 2012
(BBC NEWS) Havana - Meanwhile, former President Fidel Castro has written that he is "happy" to meet the pope, in an article on the government's website.
After arriving in the capital, Havana, the pope told a crowd he prayed for a Cuba "advancing along the ways of renewal and hope".
Cuban officials have insisted that political reform is not on the agenda.
Marino Murillo, one of Castro's vice-presidents and the "economics czar" in charge of liberalisation, told journalists the government was updating the Cuban economic model to make socialism sustainable.