Tens of thousands of Cubans held up portraits of Fidel Castro and waved flags as they marched to the revolutionary leader's tomb on Monday to mark a year since his funeral.

State television said 250,000 schoolchildren, students and workers -- many of them chanting "I am Fidel" -- marched from the center of Santiago de Cuba to the eastern city's Santa Ifigenia cemetery where Castro's ashes are interred.

In a ceremony earlier Monday, President Raul Castro, accompanied by vice president and likely successor Miguel Diaz-Canel, laid a single white rose in front of the white granite boulder of his tomb.

The ceremonies wrapped up nine days of sober commemoration of the first anniversary of Castro's death.

His death aged 90 on November 25 last year was followed by nine days of national mourning during which his ashes passed through the country as millions of Cubans lined the roads.

Raul Castro, 86, is due to step down next year, bringing to an end the Castro brothers' six decades of power in the Caribbean country.

source: AFP