HAVANA, Cuba (AP) --Fidel Castro confirmed that he invited ex-U.S. President
Jimmy Carter to become the highest-ranking former American official to visit the
island since the 1959 revolution, noting that Carter had worked to improve
U.S.-Cuba relations in the past.

"I'm witness that he made positive steps in relationship with our country," Castro
said in a far-ranging Wednesday night speech that continued into early Thursday.

Castro said that Carter personally called him and offered to mediate the 1994 Cuban
rafters crisis, but Washington "really didn't give him permission." Tens of thousands
of Cubans took to the sea in rafts and boats that summer, bound for American
shores.

During his 1976-1980 term, Carter also pushed for the opening of interest sections
in Havana and Washington without full embassies to ensure that the two countries
had some communication even diplomatic relations were cut in the early 1960s. The
Cuban Interests Section in Washington originally operated under the Czechoslovak
Embassy and the U.S. Interests in Havana operates under the Swiss Embassy here.

"We want him to see our country," Castro said of Carter. If the former U.S.
president wants, "we will fill the Plaza of the Revolution (with Cuban citizens) so
that he can criticize us all he likes," Castro added during a live televised speech.

Carter has confirmed that he wants to visit and is waiting for the green light from
the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. He would be the first U.S.
president -- in or out of office -- to visit the island since the revolution that brought
Castro to power 42 years ago.

No tentative date for the visit has been announced.

Word of Carter's invitation comes as the gap widens between the White House's
continued hard-line policies toward Cuba and increasing moves in the U.S. Congress
to ease up on American trade sanctions and restrictions on U.S. travel to the
communist country.

Carter has spoken out for increasing trade and Americans' visits to Cuba, saying
they would spread understanding of the advantages of freedom.

"That's the best way to bring about change, and not to punish the Cuban people
themselves by imposing an embargo on them, which makes Castro seem to be a
hero because he is defending his own people against the abuse of Americans," Carter
said last week.

The U.S. Treasury Department, which handles the licenses Americans must obtain
to visits he communist country, has said it is considering Carter's request. The
four-decade old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prohibits Americans from
spending money on the island, effectively barring most of them from traveling here.

Carter said Friday he expects the Bush administration's "tacit approval, not their
blessing."

Castro's invitation stemmed from the Carter Center's "Americas Program," an effort
to bring together leaders of the Cuban-American exile community and the Castro
government, a spokeswoman for Carter has said.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said his
organization welcomes the trip as long as Carter tells Castro to leave power. During
a 1994 visit to Haiti, Carter negotiated an agreement with military ruler Gen. Raoul
Cedras to step down.

While not divulging his agenda, Carter said he wants to improve relations between
Cuba and the United States, not deliver an ultimatum.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.