Havana, Jan. 16 (Reuters): Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in serious condition after a series of three failed operations on his large intestine for diverticulitis, or inflamed bulge in the intestine, complicated by infection, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported today.

Castro, who has not been seen in public since last July and whose illness is being treated as a state secret, suffered a serious infection that worsened to peritonitis, the newspaper’s Tuesday edition said, citing two medical sources at the Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited Castro works. The report was posted on the newspaper’s website (www.elpais.com) yesterday.

The 80-year-old revolutionary’s prognosis is “very serious” and he is being fed intravenously, the paper said.

Diverticulitis is a condition in which pouch-like bulges in the wall of the intestine become inflamed.

In the first operation to remove part of Castro’s large intestine, Cuban surgeons decided to connect the colon to the rectum to avoid a colostomy or opening in the abdomen to get rid of stool, the newspaper said.

But the short-cut failed, releasing faeces into the abdomen that caused another peritonitis, the report said. A second operation to clean and drain the infected area and perform a colostomy was also a failure, the paper said.