(Adds comments by Cuban musician, last two paragraphs)

CARACAS, April 13 (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has almost entirely recovered from surgery last year and has informally taken back a "good part" of his role of governing the country, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday.

"By now, Fidel has resumed a good part of his duties, though not formally," said Chavez, who is Castro's closest ally in the region and has frequently commented on his recovery.

Castro has "recovered almost completely," Chavez said at a news conference.

Castro, 80, has not been seen in public since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery that forced him to hand over power temporarily to his brother, Raul Castro, on July 31.

Officials on the communist-run island insist Castro, in power since 1959, is recovering steadily and it is only a question of time before he resumes office.

Still apparently too weak to give one of his legendary speeches, Castro, 80, has in recent weeks taken to writing editorial columns in the state-run media denouncing his longtime ideological foe, the United States.

On March 20, Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia said Castro was already involved in the country's leadership by taking part in major political and economic decisions.

"The expectation we all have is that, yes, we will soon have him with us in a more active way," she said.

That same day Colombian daily El Tiempo published a photograph of Castro chatting to Nobel Prize-winning Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a longtime friend, in Cuba the week before.

Castro, wearing a red tracksuit, was standing in a sunny garden -- the first time he has been shown outside since he was taken ill. He has not appeared in his customary olive green fatigues since he stepped down.

Garcia Marquez told the Spanish newspaper El Pais he took a long walk with Castro. "He is the same Fidel as ever," the writer said.

The last leading Cold War player to defy the United States, Castro is thought to have suffered from diverticulitis, or inflamed bulges in the large intestine, though his exact condition is a state secret in Cuba.

U.S. officials last year said they thought he was dying of cancer, but recently they have stated that Castro still has political muscle in Cuba.

Cuba's leading folk singer, Silvio Rodriguez, said on Friday Castro was recovering "by giant leaps" and the country was being run smoothly by a younger generation of leaders groomed by the convalescing revolutionary.

"There has been no instability in Cuba," the musician told reporters in Mexico. Rodriguez said Cuban socialism could be "perfected" and greater tolerance of dissent was possible.

(Additional reporting by Monica Medel in Mexico City)

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