HAVANA : President Raul Castro will make a nationally televised address to lawmakers Friday as they look at implementing reforms aimed at communist Cuba's social and economic woes, official media said.

Raul Castro, 77, was presiding over the first regular National Assembly session since taking over officially five months ago from his brother, the ailing Fidel Castro, 81.

The speech Raul Castro is to give will be broadcast at 2200 GMT, state media said.

National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon opened the meeting at 1400 GMT, with a seat at the Convention Center still in place, but vacant, for Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public since he took ill two years ago with a major intestinal ailment.

Raul Castro, decked out in a white dress tropical guayabera shirt, listened to speakers from his seat alongside his brother's symbolically empty seat. Fidel Castro led Cuba, the Americas' only one-party communist regime, for almost five decades.

While legislators are to take up the social and economic situation, including boosting food production amid soaring import prices, Labor Minister Alfredo Morales stressed that any government reforms "would not be measures (moving) to extremist neoliberalism."

There had been speculation, before Raul Castro officially became president, that the practical-minded general who has led a military with many business interests, might move Cuba toward China- or Vietnam-style reforms.

But so far, his government has not been boldly reformist.

Social and economic reforms have been cautious, though Cubans are extremely keen for change and better living standards. And there has been no sign of opening up to any political pluralism.

As Cuba eyes a shrinking population and worker base, lawmakers were considering delaying the retirement age from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to 60 for women.

And this week Raul Castro's government said it would allow private contractors back into Cuba's transport sector.

Raul Castro has allowed Cubans to buy computers, own mobile telephones, rent cars and spend nights in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners -- if they can afford such luxuries. The average salary is the equivalent of about 17 dollars a month.

The government said last month it was scrapping salary caps long meant to underscore egalitarianism but which his administration says hurt productivity.

Raul Castro also has implemented reforms that give farmers better pay and more flexibility to buy farming equipment, a move designed to lessen the impact of the world food crisis.

The younger Castro brother also has commuted 30 death sentences, released some political prisoners, and signed human rights accords.

In addition, television has fewer taboos and Granma, the venerable Communist Party mouthpiece, has taken to publishing grievances from residents.

But on the political side, Raul Castro's government has stood firm.

Just last week Cuba rounded up and detained more than 30 dissidents after accusing the United States of "instigating" opposition to the Communist regime, a top rights activist told AFP.

- AFP /ls