This week's encounter will be the first extended meeting between 77-year-old Jimmy Carter and 75-year-old Fidel Castro, but the two have met before and have been engaged in a diplomatic and political match for nearly a quarter of a century.

  It was during Carter's presidency that the two nations opened diplomatic interests sections in each other's capitals following an estrangement of nearly 20 years. But
  problems began to emerge in 1979 when intelligence reports about Soviet troops in Cuba became public.

  The following year, Castro sent Carter word that he wanted to discuss Iran and the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. Carter sent two emissaries, including his principal
  Latin American advisor, Robert Pastor, for a secret meeting with Castro.

  ''He is deeply hurt by our embargo,'' Carter later wrote in his diary, excerpts of which were published in his memoir, Keeping Faith.

  Carter's first face-to-face encounter with Castro came nine years later in Caracas when the two attended the inauguration of Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez. About the same time, Carter also met with a wide range of Cuban-American leaders in Miami.

  According to The Unfinished Presidency, written by Douglas Brinkley, those meetings defined the parameters for Carter's conversations with Castro.

  In Caracas, Carter and Castro spent 45 minutes discussing issues that ranged from Nicaragua to Mariel to the cost of transporting the corpses of relatives of Cuban
  Americans to Miami from Havana, the book states.

  Carter later had this to say about Castro: ``He surprised me with his intellect and humor. Nothing much happened, but the meeting opened up a dialogue between us.''

  Carter's efforts reached a climax in mid-1995 when he resumed long telephone conversations with Castro and ultimately invited Cuban officials and Cuban Americans to  meet in Atlanta to discuss bringing democracy to the island. In the end, however, the Cuban delegation backed out of the meeting.

  The last time Carter and Castro saw each other was in October 2000 in Toronto when both served as pallbearers for Pierre Trudeau, Canada's former prime minister. Castro invited Carter to visit Cuba, then followed it up with a formal invitation in January, at which time the former president began to send out feelers.

  -- NANCY SAN MARTIN