The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party - a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018.
And Fidel Castro said the time was approaching for a younger generation to take over. His declaration appeared to be less of an announcement that he was dying - he has been suffering from intestinal problems since the early 2000s - than a statement of obvious fact.
"I'll be 90 years old soon," he said. "Soon I'll be like all the others."
