Cubans braced themselves for new hardships Saturday after President Raul Castro told them to expect difficult times ahead because of economic instability in the world.
  
"It's my duty to speak frankly, because it would be unethical to create false expectations. To tell you otherwise would be misleading," Castro, 77, said in a televised speech at the close of the first regular National Assembly session Friday.
  
The meeting of more than 500 lawmakers was the first Castro presided since taking over officially five months ago from his brother, the ailing Fidel Castro, 81.
  
Raul Castro, decked out in a traditional white guayabera shirt, listened to speakers from his seat alongside his brother Fidel's symbolically empty seat.
  
Fidel Castro led Cuba, the Americas' only one-party communist regime, for almost five decades.
  
The assembly for a few hours debated a series of reform measures aimed at communist Cuba's social and economic woes, with Cubans waiting to see how they would impact their lives.
  
Dashing many Cubans' hopes of greater political and economic openings, Raul Castro late Friday warned of tough economic times ahead from spiraling international fuel and food prices.
  
"We can't avoid some impact on certain (basic) products and services," he said, explaining that the same amount of food Cuba imported in 2007 will cost an additional 1.1 billion dollars this year.
  
He called on Cubans to increase farming activities. "In other words: we must go back to the land! We have to make it work!"
  
Raul Castro said laws had been approved to put idle farm land in the hands of those who can quickly make it productive, and that similar laws were in the work for the livestock sector.
  
However, he said he admired "big, state-run socialist businesses, including farming and livestock," and warned "we won't be giving them up" as long as they are efficient.
  
"All forms of property and productivity can coexist in harmony," he said. "None of them are contrary to socialism," including large cooperatives and small, private farms.
  
There had been speculation, before Raul Castro officially became president, that the practical-minded general who has led a military with many business interests, might move Cuba toward China- or Vietnam-style reforms.
  
But so far, his government has not been boldly reformist.
  
Social and economic reforms have been cautious, though Cubans are extremely keen for change and better living standards. And there has been no sign of opening up to any political pluralism.
  
As Cuba eyes a shrinking population and worker base, lawmakers were considering delaying the retirement age from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to 60 for women.
  
And this week Raul Castro's government said it would allow private contractors back into Cuba's transport sector.
  
Raul Castro has allowed Cubans to buy computers, own mobile telephones, rent cars and spend nights in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners -- if they can afford such luxuries. The average salary is the equivalent of about 17 dollars a month.
  
The government said last month it was scrapping salary caps long meant to underscore egalitarianism but which his administration says hurt productivity.
  
Raul Castro also has implemented reforms that give farmers better pay and more flexibility to buy farming equipment, a move designed to lessen the impact of the world food crisis.
  
The younger Castro brother also has commuted 30 death sentences, released some political prisoners, and signed human rights accords.
  
In addition, television has fewer taboos and Granma, the venerable Communist Party mouthpiece, has taken to publishing grievances from residents.
  
But on the political side, Raul Castro's government has stood firm.
  
In his Friday speech, Castro slammed US criticism that his reforms were merely cosmetic in nature, saying his government would never make a decision "not even the smallest, out of pressure or blackmail, wherever it comes from."