Havana, Jan 11 - First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado has said that Cuba does not lack leaders to replace those who carried out the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, the Juventud Rebelde newspaper reported.

"The leaders of the future are everywhere," 79-year-old Machado said Sunday in an address to the Union of Communist Youth, or UJC, a party entity, in the coastal city of Cienfuegos.

"There are always many who have the qualifications. You have to reach them and have a good organisational policy," he said.

Machado is second-in-command to President Raul Castro, who officially became head of state Feb 24, 2008, after initially serving as Cuba's interim president.

Eighty three-year-old Fidel Castro, who stepped down from the presidency in favour of his younger brother, Raul, 79, after being stricken by a serious illness in July 2006, remains the leader of the Cuban Communist Party.

"A revolution renews itself, and young people have a fundamental role to play in it and will take over. We do not have the least doubts," Machado said.  (IANS)