(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-20 00:10

WASHINGTON - US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Tuesday that the decades-old US embargo on Cuba will remain in place despite Cuban leader Fidel Castro's resignation.

Fidel Castro [File photo]

"I don't imagine that happening anytime soon," Negroponte said in reference to a possible lifting of the embargo.

The US stance came after Castro said Tuesday in a statement published by the online version of the official daily Granma that he would not accept the position of president of the Council of State.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept ... the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief," Castro said in the statement.

Out of public sight since his gastrointestinal surgery in 2006, Castro said he would continue to "fight as a soldier of ideas" by writing columns in the Cuban media.