HAVANA, March 28 (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has yet to reappear in public since undergoing stomach surgery eight months ago, is in good shape, his elder brother Ramon Castro said on Wednesday.

"Very good. He's in one piece," Ramon Castro said, asked about the 80-year-old revolutionary's state of health.

"The thing is, the Castros are strong," he told reporters during the inauguration of an agricultural show in Havana.

Despite recent reports that Fidel Castro is progressing well and taking a more active role in the government after handing day-to-day control to his younger brother Raul Castro in July, the Cuban leader has still only been seen in photographs and video images.

A week ago Cuba's Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia said Fidel Castro was well enough to be participating in decision-making and could soon be more active in the government.

The last major Cold War player to defy the United States, Fidel Castro was photographed outside earlier this month chatting to Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a longtime friend. In late February he was heard live on the radio having a telephone conversation with Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez.

Another ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales, has said he is hopeful Castro might stage a reappearance at an April 28 meeting in Cuba of a trade pact known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.

The elder Castro, an 82-year-old farmer who keeps out of politics, did not shed any light on when Fidel Castro could appear in public.

But asked how much longer his brother would be confined in medical care, Ramon Castro replied: "He's free, he's free."

The Cuban leader is thought to have suffered from diverticulitis, or inflamed bulges in the large intestine, though his exact condition is a state secret in Cuba.

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