"We come here as friends of the Cuban people," Carter said, delivering his arrival speech in Spanish after he was greeted at the
Havana airport by Castro. Carter, who has come seeking cooperation with Cuba, was given all the ceremony usually reserved
for a visiting head of state, including a red carpet and a brass band that played the Cuban and U.S. national anthems.

All sides of the intensely emotional debate about Cuba, which has colored U.S. politics and policy since Dwight D. Eisenhower
was president, see it as an unprecedented opportunity to discuss Cuba's human rights record and the 40-year-old U.S.
economic embargo that is opposed by virtually every other country in the world.

Carter, who is not here in any official capacity, will give a live, nationally televised speech to the Cuban people Tuesday
evening. As if to make sure ordinary Cubans don't miss it, Carter mentioned the time and place of the address at today's arrival
ceremony, which was also televised live.

Castro, wearing a gray pinstriped suit instead of his usual military fatigues, promised Carter that he would have "free and total
access to anywhere you want to go," including Cuba's controversial biotech research facilities, which Carter plans to tour.
Addressing Carter as "your excellency," Castro said Carter was welcome to meet with all Cubans, "even those who do not
share our struggle," a reference to the dissident human rights and religious leaders Carter plans to meet with on Thursday.

Castro then led Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter to a black limousine for the ride to their hotel in Old Havana, a
harbor-front neighborhood of cobblestones and meticulously restored colonial buildings that Carter toured this afternoon.

"It's a Soviet-made car," Castro told Carter as they walked to the limo. "It's about a hundred years old, but it's the most
comfortable we have."

Carter's trip is seen as a delicate chess match between two old masters, now gray and wrinkled from the twin weights of age
and power.

Castro, 75, has bedeviled 10 U.S. presidents. In 1980 Castro used comments made by Carter as a pretext for clearing out
prisons and mental wards and sending 125,000 Cubans to the United States. Known as the Mariel boatlift, the crisis
contributed to Carter's election loss in 1980 to Ronald Reagan.

Carter, 77, is considered an accomplished and respected statesman, having spent the past two decades involved in human
rights issues, elections and conflict mediation in some of the world's most troubled spots.

Despite the Mariel incident, many historians now regard Carter's term as a progressive time in relations with Cuba. In 1977
Carter lifted travel prohibitions, which were later reimposed by Reagan. Carter also negotiated agreements on fishing rights and
maritime boundaries and secured the release of 3,600 Cuban political prisoners. The two governments opened "interest
sections," a step short of embassies, in each other's capitals for the first time since relations were cut by Eisenhower in January
1961, on the eve of John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

Castro, citing "an ocean of prejudices, misinformation and distrust" in dealings between Havana and Washington, praised
Carter today for having "the courage to make efforts to change the course of those relations."

Castro rejected suggestions from his opponents that his invitation to Carter was simply "a shrewd maneuver" with a "political
purpose." Rather, Castro said, it was "deserved recognition of your attitude as president of the United States of America
toward Cuba."

"Daring to try to improve relations between those two countries deserves respect," Castro said, adding that he hoped no one
would "question your patriotism" for visiting Cuba.

Opponents of the U.S. embargo against Cuba hope that Carter, who has criticized it as counterproductive, will publicly call for
it to be lifted.

Supporters of the embargo, which is backed by President Bush, hope that Carter will focus instead on Castro's human rights
record, including controls on freedom of speech and assembly, no free elections and the holding of an estimated 250 political
prisoners.

"We are eager to see firsthand your accomplishments in health, in education and in culture," said Carter, who is the first former
or sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge came in 1928. But he added that he also intended to discuss with
Castro, and with representatives of religious and human rights groups, "ideals that Rosalynn and I hold dear: peace, human
rights, democracy and the alleviation of human suffering.

"We understand that we have differences of opinion on some of these issues," Carter said. "But we welcome the opportunity to
try to identify some points in common and some areas of cooperation."

In a surprise, Carter mentioned that he and his wife had visited Cuba 47 years ago and were delighted to be back. Even some
of his own staff members had not known that the Carters had traveled to Cuba for a weekend vacation with another couple in
the late 1950s, before Castro's revolution.

Carter said Castro first invited him to Cuba when they met in Caracas, Venezuela, 14 years ago, then again in 2000 at the
funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Watching Carter's trip from the sidelines will be perhaps the most staunchly anti-Castro U.S. administration ever. While fighting
a global war on terrorism on the other side of the world, Bush has kept a close eye on Cuba. He has appointed several
anti-Castro Cubans to high administration positions, and he has given passionate speeches in favor of the embargo, despite
clear majorities in both houses of Congress calling for easing restrictions on travel and the sale of food and medicine to the
island nation.

Bush is scheduled to deliver a speech on May 20 announcing new measures against Cuba, which many analysts say are likely
to include stepped-up efforts to provide cash and other help to dissidents in Cuba.

Bush is said to be angry about Carter's trip, which is also opposed by most members of the anti-Castro Cuban American lobby
in Miami, a voting bloc that was key to Bush's election in 2000 and is also critical to the political fortunes of Bush's brother Jeb,
the governor of Florida.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.