This image from a broadcast on television station Cubavision shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro holding a book at an unidentified location Friday.

Havana ? Fidel Castro looked alert and healthier during an hourlong interview taped and aired on Cuban television Friday, responding to rumors of his death with a defiant “here I am.”

In the first video of the ailing 81-year-old revolutionary seen in more than three months, a pale Castro stayed seated the entire time, spoke slowly and softly and didn’t always look the interviewer in the eye. But he appeared to be thinking clearly.

The Cuban leader said he thought the Bush administration could go to war with Iran and bemoaned the high cost of the war in Iraq, but provided no new details about his health, except to say, “Well, here I am.”

Mocking rumors of his death that have circulated in Miami and elsewhere in the United States, he said, “they say ‘I was dying’ and ‘if I die’ and ‘I will die the day after tomorrow’ or something.”

“Nobody knows the day they are going to die,” said Castro, who was forced to cede power to his younger brother, Raul, in July 2006 following emergency intestinal surgery. He has not appeared in public since.

Early in the interview, Castro often trailed off mid-sentence and needed some prompting by the interviewer. He had bags under his eyes, sunken cheeks, and his thin gray beard looked as wispy as ever. But he appeared to get stronger and more comfortable as time passed.

The video’s release came as a surprise. Cuban officials broke into regularly scheduled programming only minutes before the video was broadcast to announce that a “conversation” with Castro would be shown. They said the interview was taped Friday.

Backing up the assertion, Castro mentioned recent prices of oil and the value of the euro against the dollar. He also discussed an essay he signed that was published in state media Wednesday.

“Yesterday the euro was at US$1.41. Oil I think about US$84 a barrel,” Castro said.

He also held up a copy of the new book by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.” At one point he quoted from it, reading excerpted passages in very large type instead of using the book itself.

The Cuban leader wore a red, blue and white jumpsuit with “F. Castro” in small block letters.

“They criticize me” for wearing the tracksuit, Castro joked. But he said he was “not looking for anything elegant.”

Castro’s condition and exact ailment are state secrets, though he wrote in one of his many essays that he had undergone multiple surgeries, at least one of which went poorly. He is recovering in an undisclosed location.

For months, official photographs and videos were released to show Castro’s recovery, but no new images had surfaced since he appeared in an interview on Cuban television June 5.