The former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Havana tomorrow seeking to improve relations between the United States and Cuba. Carter is the highest-profile American to visit the island since President Fidel Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution that deposed the American-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Carter, 77, will meet with Castro, 75, three times during his six-day visit, and also spend three hours discussing human rights issues with leading dissidents.
The visit comes as the US debates whether to ease a 4-decade-old trade embargo against Cuba, with powerful business lobbies seeking an end to restrictions on credit and travel by Americans to the island.
The Bush administration, backed by right-wing Cuban-American exiles in Florida, wants to tighten the trade sanctions and has urged Carter to speak up for human rights and political prisoners.
Carter, who is critical of isolating Cuba with sanctions, has said his trip could help improve US-Cuba relations and he will raise human rights concerns, although he has said he does not expect the trip to change Cuba's system.
The visit comes as relations deteriorated over US accusations that Cuba was developing biological weapons and had shared technology with enemies of the United States.
Castro accused the Bush administration yesterday of fabricating the charges to stop US sales of food to Cuba that were authorised by Congress a year ago, and to counter growing support among Americans for further easing of the trade embargo
John Bolton, US undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said on Monday that, along with Libya and Syria, Cuba was working to develop arms of mass destruction, in particular biological weapons.
Cuba says its biotechnology and genetic engineering program, one of the most advanced in Latin America, is dedicated only to peaceful purposes and the making of medicines and vaccines sold to many nations.
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1962. During the Carter presidency, communications were restored when both nations opened offices representing each countries' interests under the aegis of the Swiss embassy.