June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro has almost recovered from last year's surgery, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who suggested the 80-year-old leader may be ready to resume government duties.

``It's almost time for Fidel to put his uniform back on,'' Chavez, 52, said in a televised speech today from Havana. ``Fidel's fastball is back up to 90 miles an hour.''

Chavez, accompanied by Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother and who has been at the nation's helm since last July, vowed to accelerate cooperation plans with the Communist-ruled island, including the construction of a regasification plant. Chavez gave no further details other than to call it a ``large regasification'' plant to process Venezuelan hydrocarbons.

The Venezuelan president, an admirer and friend of the Castros, has helped drive Cuba's economic expansion by adopting the island nation as his main overseas project. Under an accord engineered by Chavez, Venezuela sells up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba at a discount of as much as 40 percent. State- owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA is helping Cuba Petroleo, the nation's state-run oil company, fund the improvement of a refinery in Cienfuegos and upgrade existing thermal plants fueled by tar-like oil.

``We are there for Cuba, a country that's suffered for years from the scarcity of energy resources,'' Chavez said, prompting the applause of Raul Castro and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, among a hundred of attending the ceremony.

Venezuela was the world's sixth-largest oil exporter last year.

Energy, Politics

Chavez said his country's natural gas had been ``kidnapped'' by the U.S., whose President George W. Bush he blamed for triggering a ``global energy crisis.'' Chavez also criticized U.S. attempts to help replace part of its gasoline needs with biofuels as ``insane,'' echoing Castro's statements opposing the use of food crops for fuel.

Chavez, who placed a floral wreath at a statue of one of Venezuela's founding fathers in Cuba's capital, said he discussed gas and energy ventures with Fidel Castro for almost seven hours yesterday.

Chavez's trip is his sixth to Cuba since Castro underwent intestinal surgery July 31 and ceded temporary authority to his brother Raul. Chavez, who frequently refers to Fidel Castro's improving health in speeches and on television, last visited Cuba on Jan. 29. The two became friends during Chavez's December 1994 visit to the island, a few months after leaving prison for having led a failed coup in February 1992 in Venezuela.

``Fidel is like a father to me,'' Chavez said. ``He is like a father to all of us.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Caracas at gparra@bloomberg.net; Steven Bodzin in Caracas at sbodzin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 13, 2007 14:06 EDT