The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, asked Cuban and foreign intellectuals attending a meeting in this capital with him to meet again in February 2012.

In the third part of a meeting with intellectuals attending the 20th Havana Book Fair, broadcast on the Cuban television program Roundtable on Thursday afternoon, Fidel Castro asked those present to extend the invitation to other intellectuals.

Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal talked about the revolutionary leader's essential role in the January 1, 1959 victory.

If Fidel Castro would have died during the days of the attacks on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Garrisons in eastern Cuba on July 26, 1953, the Revolution would have not existed, Leal said.

Only those who are petty deny the role of a human being in history; a people is a totality of individuals and, from within them, a leader emerges, Leal said.

"And we have had the fortune to have him for many years," he added.

The Havana historian highlighted the book "La Ofensiva Estrategica" (The Strategic Offensive), written by Fidel Castro, in which he recounts important episodes of the revolutionary struggle.

Fidel Castro still has another great debt to current generations: to continue telling historic truths, Leal commented.

Leal referred to the importance of family and school in national education and culture, as well as the achievements of the Cuban Revolution.

Cuban writer Robert Fernandez Retamar, president of the Casa de las Americas cultural institution, highlighted the need to reach out to young people, but also to listen to them.

Other intellectuals talked of the importance of using new information and communications technologies, and all available means to transmit knowledge about the history of nations, especially in Latin America.