Nelson Mandela sat beaming in a yellow armchair, his legs propped up on a large stool and covered with a pale yellow blanket. Ten grandchildren crowded around to serenade him with "Happy Birthday" and then smothered him with hugs and kisses.

The anti-apartheid icon celebrated his 90th birthday Friday with his family at his home in rural southeastern South Africa and the whole village turned out.

Elders in traditional dress came to pay their respects, sheep were trucked into the property and a troupe of bare-breasted young women sang and danced in preparation for Mandela's lunch with 500 dignitaries Saturday.

He still found time to settle down to read a pile of newspapers, to keep up with local and international affairs.

Sounding and looking vigorous, Mandela told a small group of reporters he was fortunate to have reached 90, crediting his "behavior" for his longevity.

But the man who has become a symbol of peace remains troubled by the demoralizing poverty still faced by so many of his countrymen.

"If you are poor, you are not likely to live long," he said.

His message was simple _ the wealthy must do more.

"There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate, who have not been able to conquer poverty," Mandela said during the 10-minute interview, his first such exchange with journalists in years.

He was asked if he wished he could have had more time with his family during a life spent fighting apartheid and then leading South Africa as its first black president.

"I am sure for many people that is their wish," Mandela said. "I also have that wish that I spent more time (with my family). But I don't regret it."

His third wife, Graca Machel, whom he married 10 years ago on his birthday, said in a TV interview that he was a lonely man despite his busy schedule as a leader when she met him a few years after he divorced Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 1996.

She told Al-Jazeera television she helped him reconnect with his family.

"If I could say in a very modest way, that's what I was able to give him back," Machel, a noted campaigner for children's rights, said in the interview broadcast Friday. "I'm happy that in his sunset years I was able to be there for him. And he is there for me."

Mandela was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against apartheid. He was released in 1990 to lead negotiations that ended decades of racist white rule, then was elected president in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

He completed his term in 1999 and did not run again, but has continued to take a leading role in the fight against poverty, illiteracy and AIDS in Africa.

Tukwini Mandela, 33, one of Mandela's granddaughters, said Friday was "a special day because we are planning a huge party on Saturday and we are hoping he is going to enjoy it."

"We have invited his oldest friends who have meant something to him and have made a difference in his life," she said.

While not all Mandela's 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren were attending the celebrations, many were present Friday, creating a warm atmosphere in the house, decorated with animal skin mats and African prints on the walls.

Wearing one of his signature patterned shirts in shades of green, gold and black, Mandela glanced pensively out a window at the start of his interview with The Associated Press and a few other news organizations.

"This is my property. When I am here, I feel I own something," he said of the homestead in the rural area 600 miles south of Johannesburg where as a boy he herded cattle in the hills. Continued...