In a speech to a regional women's conference in Havana on Friday, Cuban President Fidel Castro said there is no longer a place for armed struggle in Latin American politics.

Castro's comments came as other hemisphere leaders gathered in Santiago, Chile, to discuss free trade at a Summit of the Americas from which Cuba was excluded.

Castro called on Latin nations to form a common front against the United States and said capitalism ``cannot last 100 years.'' But he acknowledged that ``if someone were to shout `down with globalization' it would be like shouting `down with the law of gravity.' ''

Cuba, which in the 1960s sent activists like Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara to help foment revolutionary movements in other Latin nations, appears to have abandoned support for armed leftist groups abroad a decade ago.

In 1993, Castro told a gathering of leftists in Havana -- including several guerrilla groups -- that ``at this point, under these circumstances, [armed struggle] is not the path.''

But Castro's remarks Friday were a more detailed acknowledgement that ``conditions no longer exist'' for armed struggles, the official Cuban news agency Prensa Latina quoted Castro as saying.

Castro made his four-hour speech, which lasted into the early hours of Friday, to a conference on Solidarity with Cuban Women.