HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) --For more than two decades Cuban President Fidel
Castro and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter were divided by the Cold War,
communicating through clandestine intermediaries, calculated rhetoric and in the face
of fierce opposition in both nations to Cuba-U.S. reconciliation.

But the October 2000 funeral of flamboyant former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre
Trudeau brought together the two leaders as honorary pallbearers. And it was in
Montreal that Castro first brought up the possibility of this week's historic meeting.

Carter touches down in Havana Sunday morning, the first U.S. president to travel to
the Caribbean island since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928. The five-day visit,
during which Carter will meet with Castro as well as opposition leaders, comes at a
tenuous period in U.S.-Cuban relations, with tough talk on human rights and
biological weapons mixed with increased trade and ties between U.S. businesses and
Cuba.

Carter downplayed expectations for his visit, saying he would not negotiate with
Cuba. But he did express hope he could at least jump-start a dialogue between the
two nations.

"It is an opportunity to explore issues of mutual interest between our citizens and to
share ideas on how to improve the relationship between the United States and Cuba,"
Carter said in a statement issued by the Carter Center, the pro-democracy
organization he founded in 1982.

Official cites Castro's respect for Carter

On the face of it, Castro and Carter are an odd couple.

Since leaving the White House in 1981, Carter has dedicated himself to safeguarding
human rights, resolving conflicts and enhancing democracies worldwide. U.S.
administrations, meanwhile, have long vilified Castro as an insular, authoritarian ruler
who preserves his power at the expense of his people.

But Bernardo Benes, who carried out secret diplomatic missions for Washington in
Cuba between 1977 and 1986, says that mutual respect could produce progress this
week.

"Castro told me many times," Benes said, "when he spoke of Jimmy Carter, he
always mentioned ... his moral and religious values."

Relations between Washington and Havana improved early in the Carter
administration, starting with the creation of a U.S. Interests Section in Havana in
1977, the first official U.S. representation in the Cuban capital since diplomatic ties
were cut 16 years earlier.

Carter hammered out deals allowing Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year and
expediting the return of American citizens and dual nationals from Cuba to the United
States. Castro, in what Benes called a goodwill gesture to Carter, released 3,600
political prisoners from Cuban jails in 1978.

But U.S.-Cuban relations suffered a setback two years later, when more than
100,000 Cubans boarded a chaotic flotilla of boats in Mariel, Cuba, and headed to
Florida with Castro's blessing -- catching the U.S. Coast Guard and Carter by
surprise.

Many mixed signals

The killing of four Cuban-Americans when the Cuban military shot down their
U.S.-owned planes in 1996 and the bitter legal battle over Elian Gonzalez, a
5-year-old rescued by U.S. authorities after his mother died while fleeing Cuba,
further heightened tensions between the two nations. And just this week, a senior
Bush administration official said Cuba is trying to develop biological weapons and is
transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile to the United States -- claims
Cuban officials denied.

But there has also been movement toward reconciliation. In recent years, under
pressure from U.S. farmers and business interests, Congress relaxed the 41-year-old
embargo against Cuba by allowing trade in food and medicine.

American opinions on Carter's visit are as varied and emotional as they are on
U.S.-Cuban relations in general.

"It's much ado about nothing," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican
who represents a strong anti-Castro constituency in Miami, Florida. "Castro is never
going to change. Are we ever going to understand that the man really is a dictator?"

In contrast, Alfredo Duran, vice president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy,
which supports normalizing U.S.-Cuban ties, called the visit "a great trip." And Julia
Sweig, deputy director of Latin American studies for the Council on Foreign
Relations, said the meeting's symbolism could influence Cuban and American
opinion.

"It will be a very important step marking the continued erosion marking the old sense
that the embargo makes sense," she said.

Inside Cuba, the run-up to Carter's visit has been marked by several human rights
gestures from Havana.

Earlier this week, the Cuban government freed from prison Vladimiro Roca Antunez,
one of Cuba's best-known political dissidents.

And on Friday, Projecto Varela, an illegal but tolerated Christian liberation movement,
sent 11,020 petitions to the National Assembly calling for a national referendum on
free speech, free assembly, political prisoners, private business ownership and
democratic elections.

Cuba's constitution requires the National Assembly consider legislative proposals
presented by a petition with the names of at least 10,000 registered voters. While
few expect the reforms to be enacted, Project Varela's ability to simply collect the
signatures was a notable development.

Whatever it does for democracy, the president of the Cuban assembly, Ricardo
Alarcon, expressed hopes that Carter's visit could drastically improve U.S.-Cuban
relations.

"President Carter represents the future, a day when there will be a mutual respect
and a good neighbor policy between the U.S. and Cuba, a future with a policy based
on certain moral and ethical values," Alarcon said.