By STEVEN GUTKIN
 Associated Press Writer

 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- (AP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Saturday praised U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for ``daring'' to say something nice about Cuba.

 "I do not think that he is a warmonger,'' Castro said on a state visit to Malaysia. ``He is the only one who has dared say that Cuba has done something good.''

 Castro made his comments to reporters while dozens of shoppers inside the world's tallest buildings -- Malaysia's Petronas Towers -- scrambled to greet him. A few lucky ones did.

 Powell last month told U.S. lawmakers that Castro has ``done good things for his people'' -- the first time in four decades even faint praise was accorded to the Cuban leader by a senior U.S. official.

 But just as Powell was quick to add that Castro remains ``trapped in a time warp,'' Castro quickly added that Powell ``has to take the same line as the government.''

 Castro's comment followed days of harsh criticism of the United States during visits to Algeria, Iran and Malaysia -- three nations sympathetic to his communist
 revolution.

 On Friday, he told a group of Malaysian businessmen and academics that globalization was a threat to nations' sovereignty and praised Malaysia's ``spirit of rebellion.''

 Castro played tourist on the second day of his three-day Malaysia tour Saturday, visiting the world's tallest buildings before retiring to private meetings with officials and businessmen.

 "I was closer to heaven here,'' Castro told reporters after touring the Petronas Towers, one of several mega-projects undertaken by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

 Mahathir, like Castro, is an outspoken critic of Washington and what he calls an unfair international financial system. He's given the Cuban leader an extraordinarily warm welcome, with the two countries signing an accord Friday to bolster bilateral cooperation in trade, science and technology.

 "We are the rebels of the West,'' Castro said. ``And Malaysia is the rebel of the East.''

 Cuba has been trying to bolster relations with old and new allies in the Arab world and Asia as part of its drive to form political and financial partnerships with developing nations following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba's one-time patron.

 On Saturday, Castro revisited his praise of Iran, where university students last week cheered him with chants of "Fidel! Fidel!''

 "One really finds that women are much more respected there in Iran than in the West where women are used as commodities,'' he told reporters in Malaysia.

 Castro, 74, and Mahathir, 75, both among the world's longest-ruling leaders, share a deep suspicion of the United States.

 But Castro's communist Cuba is one of the region's poorest nations, while capitalist Malaysia is one of Southeast Asia's richest. And while the United States is
 Malaysia's largest trading partner, Cuba languishes under a four-decade U.S. trade embargo.

                                    © 2001