March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Fidel Castro accused U.S. President George W. Bush of condemning billions of people to ``premature death'' by promoting the use of biofuels, in the Cuban leader's first signed article since he had intestinal surgery in July.

In the article titled ``More Than 3 Billion People in the World Condemned to Premature Death From Hunger and Thirst,'' the 80-year-old Cuban president attacked Bush's promotion of alternative fuels such as ethanol, made mainly from corn and aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on oil imports. Castro objected to the use of farmland for fuel production instead of food.

``This is not an exaggeration. It is very cautious,'' Castro wrote in the article in the Communist Party's official Granma newspaper and carried today on its Web site. ``I have thought about this a great deal since President Bush's meeting with the North American automakers,'' he wrote, referring to Bush's talks with the U.S. industry's leaders in Washington on March 26.

At that meeting, the automakers' chief executive officers urged Bush to back incentives to increase the use of ethanol and biodiesel to run vehicles.

The Cuban government is increasing its own production of ethanol using sugarcane and will increase the amount of farmland devoted to the crop, Vice President Carlos Lage said in November.

Bush aims to reduce gasoline consumption in the U.S. by 20 percent in the next 10 years, he said in a speech during a March 9 visit to Brazil to discuss cooperation in developing biofuels. ``We have a mandated fuel standard of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels to be used by 2017,'' Bush said.

`Sinister Idea'

Castro wrote, ``you need 320 million tons of corn to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol,'' and that it is dangerous to offer financial incentives to ``poor countries'' to produce ethanol from corn. The ``sinister idea'' of converting food into fuel has been ``definitively established as the economic line of U.S. foreign policy,'' Castro said in the article.

``Apply this idea to Third World countries and you will see how many people among the hungry masses of this planet stop eating corn,'' Castro wrote.

Recycling all cars is an ``elemental and urgent necessity for all humanity,'' Castro said. Castro ceded authority to his brother Raul on July 31 after undergoing surgery for an intestinal hemorrhage. Castro's disappearance from public view during his recovery prompted speculation he was near death. He then appeared on state television on Jan. 30 with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Castro became Cuban leader after the 1959 revolution. Since 1962, the U.S. has maintained an economic embargo of the island nation located 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Florida.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in London at rstringer@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 29, 2007 08:01 EDT