Havana ? Fidel Castro said Thursday that President-elect Barack Obama is a man Cuba can talk with and indicated that communist officials would be willing to meet with him.

But the former Cuban leader expressed disappointment with some of Obama’s Cabinet choices, including Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and Robert Gates as defense secretary.

In his latest essay distributed to official media, the ailing 82-year-old former president wrote that with Obama “a conversation can be held wherever he wants,” and that Cuban officials don’t expect the new U.S. administration to be marked by violence and war.

He added Obama must remember a carrot-and-stick approach won’t work with Cuba.