Cuba's ex-president and current first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Raul Castro, confirmed he was handing over the leadership of the PCC to a younger generation at its congress that opened on Friday.

In a speech opening the four-day congress, Castro, 89, said the new leadership would be party loyalists with decades of experience working their way up the ranks and are "full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit."

"I believe fervently in the strength and exemplary nature and comprehension of my compatriots, and as long as I live I will be ready with my foot in the stirrups to defend the fatherland, the revolution and socialism," Castro told hundreds of party delegates gathered at a convention center in the country's capital Havana.

The congress, the party's most important meeting, held every five years to review policy and fix leadership, is a closed-door event but excerpts are broadcast on state television.

This year's meeting was long been described as "the Congress of Continuity" by Jose Ramon Machado, the second secretary of the Central Committee of PCC, who said the congress will realize a "gradual and orderly transition of the country's main responsibilities to the new generations," when announcing the gathering in December.

Castro had said at the previous party congress in 2016 it would be the last one led by the "historic generation" who fought in the Sierra Maestra to topple a U.S.-backed dictator in the 1959 leftist revolution.

He already handed over the presidency in 2018 to Miguel Diaz-Canel, 60, who ran the party in two provinces before joining the national government.

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)