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Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down on Tuesday after almost half a century at Cuba's helm, setting the stage for an orderly transfer of power to his brother Raul. For decades, Castro's enemies have hoped his death or resignation would send thousands of Cubans onto the streets to demand democratic reforms in the communist state.But when the 81-year-old revolutionary announced he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets on Sunday, the reaction from Cubans was subdued.Some were saddened by Castro's retirement and others hoped it would herald economic changes, but no one was ready to predict major changes to Cuba's one-party rule.

People went about their lives as usual and there appeared to be little or no increase in police presence on the quiet and muggy streets of Havana."I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief," Castro said in a statement published in the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.Castro, who seized power in an armed revolution in 1959, has not appeared in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to delegate power to his brother on July 31, 2006.Cuba's National Assembly, a rubber-stamp legislature, is expected to formally nominate Raul Castro, 76, as president.

"The revolution will continue. Fidel resigned in time. It's a wise decision. He let Cubans get used to his absence for 18 months," said Lazaro, a building administrator sweeping a lobby in slippers and an Australian Olympic team shirt."Raul can improve things. He has different economic views from Fidel, though both are the same politically," Lazaro said, praising the Cuban armed forces managed by the younger Castro as the only financially solvent institution in Cuba.

Castro's retirement raised expectations for change on the island -- and calls for democracy by his arch-enemy, the United States -- but Cuba experts said limited economic reforms were more likely than swift political transformation.President George W. Bush, who has tightened the decades-old economic embargo against Castro's government, said his retirement should begin a democratic transition.In Miami, the heartland of exiled opposition to the Castro brothers, reaction was also subdued, in contrast to celebrations after the 2006 announcement of his illness."This is a succession from one tyrant to another. We shouldn't kid ourselves.

While Fidel is alive, he's running the show," Cuban-born U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview with Reuters.Cuba watchers disagreed and said Castro's retirement clears the way for his brother to wield real authority."Despite the fact that there will be continuity in the short term in Cuba, this is clearly a momentous moment for the people of Cuba," said Dan Erikson, an expert on Cuba at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.Raul Castro has promoted more open debate about Cuba's failings.

Cubans hope he will lift restrictions on travel abroad and allow them to buy and sell cars and homes, currently prohibited in the state-run economy. "Cuba has problems -- many identified by its government -- and Cuban socialism will now sink, swim, or adapt on its own, without Fidel," said Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute in Virginia.