HAVANA -- (AP) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro said the United States would fail
 if it tried to intervene in Colombia's guerrilla war and predicted capitalism's
 collapse in remarks at a youth conference that lasted more than four hours.

 Those who advocate U.S. intervention ``have no idea of what a war is or what an
 intervention of that type would signify when all patriotism and national spirit is
 aroused,'' he said Wednesday, responding to a question from a Colombian
 student.

 Some analysts in the United States have speculated that growing guerrilla activity
 in Colombia could eventually draw a U.S. intervention, but American policymakers
 have strongly denied such intentions.

 ``It is asking to put the United States into a very big conflict and a very great risk,''
 Castro said.

 Castro spoke to some 2,000 people at Havana's National Theater during the close
 of a youth conference called to denounce ``neo-liberalism,'' a term for free-market,
 anti-government policies.

 Such policies have added to inequality and poverty around the world, Castro said.

 Sometimes playful, sometimes bombastic, Castro wandered from the history of
 the French Revolution to details of guerrilla battles in Namibia to the difficulty of
 signing baseballs.

 ``In the United States they would like me to dedicate myself to baseball,'' he said
 in a joking complaint about U.S. visitors who ask him to sign baseballs in
 remembrance of his youthful days as a promising pitcher.

 The 73-year-old president, who has been in power since 1959, also referred to his
 place in history.

 ``I am of this century which is ending,'' he said, saying that the youths in the
 audience would be the ones facing the problems of the future.