President Raul Castro on Monday called a Cuban Communist Party congress for the first time in 13 years, to be held in April 2011 and to address "updating" economic policy.
The Politburo "decided to convene the VI Congress for the second half of the month of next April to make fundamental decisions on updating the economic and social model," the president said after meeting with key ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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The last party congress in the Americas' only communist regime was held in October 1997. The congress is supposed to be held every five years but has been postponed repeatedly without public explanation.
The president, 79, also said that late in 2011 the party will hold its National Convention to name the party leadership.
The Communist Party's current first secretary is revolution icon and former president Fidel Castro, 84. The man who led Cuba's revolution for almost five decades in 2006 stepped aside as president during a health crisis and handed power to his brother Raul Castro, Cuba's longtime military chief.
But Fidel Castro so far has held onto his party leadership post.
Ahead of the party congress, Raul Castro said there would be a process of public debate stretching from December 1 to February 28, 2011, "to be based on an outline document of the social and political" points to be released Tuesday.
A week ago, Raul Castro warned that Cuba needed to apply previously announced measures -- adopting self-employment more widely as the government lays off workers -- urgently to jumpstart the economy, and keep the system from falling over a cliff.
In October the government started a process of eliminating 500,000 government jobs. That phase ends in March -- just the first of an overarching plan to cut over the years more than one million jobs -- 20 percent of the workforce.
Raul Castro has said that Cuba, which for decades followed the Soviet model as part of the communist bloc, has to update its system without copying others.
So far Cuba has refused to adopt major market-oriented economic reforms or a multiparty system.
