Havana ? Fidel Castro’s health is improving and the 80-year-old leader increasingly is involved in Cuba’s foreign affairs, but he’s unlikely ever to take full command again, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

The comments suggesting that Castro is settling into an elder-statesmen role come after China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Castro was in a hospital when he met Friday with a top Beijing delegation.

The Cuban government released photos of Castro at the meeting, looking healthier than in previous appearances and wearing a track suit. But Xinhua’s mention of the hospital suggested that Castro’s health is still precarious after his announcement last July 31 that he’d undergone surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment.

The U.S. intelligence official said the photos themselves suggested that while Castro may indeed be recuperating, he’s not out of the woods.

“An 80-year-old man who’s gone (from public appearances) nine months and still wears a track suit when he meets with foreign dignitaries suggests this is an extremely serious illness still,” the official said in a briefing for two journalists who cover Cuban issues.