The BBC's Tom Gibb: "Little sign of Castro relaxing Cuba's one party state"

The 72-year-old leader was speaking from the same balcony in Santiago de Cuba where he addressed crowds four decades ago after rising to power on 1 January, 1959.

He used most of the speech to denounce global capitalism and the laws of the market, which he said are turning the world into a giant casino.

When President Castro spoke in 1959 he addressed the rebels who helped in win power.

This time 1,000 invited guests from Cuba's ruling elite and foreign diplomats were in the audience.

Tom Gibb: "Vintage Castro"

He told them he still had the same ideals and thought in the same way as the man who addressed the crowds four decades ago.

Casino capitalism

Speaking for 90 minutes, President Castro predicted the capitalist system would "inevitably fall".

Castro said the revolution was just beginning

And referring to financial speculators and the global market, he said "they have turned the planet into a giant casino".

President Castro said Cuba would "fight for our people and for all humanity".

The BBC's correspondent in Havana, Tom Gibb, says President Castro has increasingly sought to cast himself as a champion of Third World rights, tending to dwell much less on Cuba's own internal problems.

President Castro said the Cuban revolution was just starting and there was little indication in his speech that he intended to relax Cuba's one party state.

As he spoke, giant screens showed footage of the Cuban president both during and after the revolution as well as scenes from the American-backed Bay of Pigs invasion which failed in 1961.