NEW YORK (AP) -- A church full of admiring American supporters in Harlem erupted in
                  applause early Saturday when Cuban leader Fidel Castro told them how pleased he was to
                  shake hands earlier in the week with President Clinton.

                  "I feel satisfied by my respectful and civilized behavior with the president of the country that
                  had been host of the summit," Castro told the invitation-only crowd at towering Riverside
                  Church.

                  It was the first time Castro had publicly mentioned the much-discussed encounter
                  between the two leaders at the end of a luncheon of the U.N. Millennium Summit, a
                  gathering of about 160 world leaders. The news was especially encouraging to Americans
                  who support the normalization of relations between the two countries.

                  Back in his olive green uniform after spending a week in the black suits he favors
                  for presidential gatherings, Castro told the crowd at the end of a far-ranging
                  address about how he encountered Clinton face-to-face for the first time on
                  Wednesday afternoon.

                  Suddenly, he found himself in a line of leaders being greeted by the American
                  president.

                  "I couldn't run away to prevent passing by that point," Castro said, growing
                  animated at his speech, which early on was punctuated by the crowd's shouts of
                  "Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!"

                  "With all dignity and courtesy I greeted him," the Cuban president said. "He did the same, and I
                  moved ahead in line. It would have been extravagant and rude to do any other thing. The
                  whole thing lasted less than 20 seconds."

                  More than 2,000 people attended the evening event organized by Cuban solidarity groups, with
                  guests lining up outside the church up to four hours beforehand to get in.

                  The Cuban leader evidently went straight to the airport shortly after the gathering
                  wound up.

                  Castro's plane landed at 8:47 a.m. (1247 GMT) in Havana, where he was greeted
                  at the airport by other top officials, including Vice President Carlos Lage, Cuba's
                  Radio Reloj reported.

                  Castro was clearly moved by the affection shown him by the Americans who
                  surrounded him, especially when they sang "Happy Birthday" in belated
                  recognition of his turning 74 in mid-August.

                  "Dear brothers and sisters," he told them, hugging several children who gave him
                  a plastic-wrapped bouquet of flowers. "You have been extremely generous and
                  kind with us."

                  "It is only because of miracles that I have survived all these years," alluding to
                  the many assassination attempts against the communist leader during his 41
                  years in power.

                  "I came to Harlem because I knew it was here that I would find my best
                  friends," he added. Among those in the church were U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of
                  Los Angeles and U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano of New York, and the Rev. Dr. Lucius
                  Walker Jr. of Pastors for Peace, all longtime opponents of the 38-year-old U.S.
                  embargo against Cuba.

                  Other guests included the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the former head of the
                  National Council of Churches, who campaigned vigorously for the repatriation of
                  6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, even bringing the boy's
                  grandmothers to Washington.

                  The Riverside Church is an institution in Harlem, where it played a major
                  organizing role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. It was from this pulpit
                  that the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War and
                  was one of South African leader Nelson Mandela first stops in America after his
                  release from prison a decade ago.

                  Many in the church wore pins or stickers that said "Free Mumia," a reference to
                  death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal who was convicted in the killing of a
                  Philadelphia police officer. His supporters maintain he did not receive a fair trial
                  and have launched an international campaign for a new one.

                  A sign carried by one supporter read: "Hail Castro, Jail Giuliani," a reference to
                  New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who snubbed Castro during the summit and
                  in the days before described the Cuban leader as a "murderer."

                  Castro has great fondness for Harlem and black Americans in general, having
                  first visited the neighborhood during a 1960 trip to the United Nations for that
                  year's General Assembly.

                  Refused at the Shelburne Hotel in midtown, the delegation of bearded guerrillas
                  who had recently assumed power on the island moved to Harlem's Hotel
                  Theresa. Thousands of Harlem residents crowded the streets to cheer them.

                  There, Castro met with black leader Malcolm X, and met separately with
                  then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Gamal Abdel Nassar of the United Arab
                  Republic also paid his respects to Castro at the hotel, which has since been torn
                  down.

                  Castro returned to Harlem during his last visit to New York in 1995, when he
                  addressed the General Assembly. On that trip, he met with more than 2,000
                  American supporters at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and visited the Bronx.

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