HAVANA, May 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Jimmy Carter will become the first former or current U.S .president to travel to Cuba in more than six decades when he arrives in Havana Sunday for an historic visit. 

The meeting juxtaposes two leaders with very different public personas: the former U.S. president - known as a champion of human rights around the world and most famous for brokering the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel - versus Cuban President Fidel Castro, pilloried by his critics as an unyielding dictator and one of the world's great human rights violators. 

Human rights advocates and foes of communism said they hope Carter, president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, uses his five days in the spotlight in Cuba to exert pressure for change on the Castro regime. 

However, the ex-president himself, in announcing his trip several weeks ago, said it was unlikely to immediately cause a radical change in U.S.-Cuba relations. 

But Carter did say that the visit was rich with possibilities for improving future bilateral ties. 

"It is an opportunity to explore issues of mutual interest and to share ideas on how to improve the relationship between the United States and Cuba," Carter said while announcing his trip. 

The United States and Cuba currently do not maintain full diplomatic ties, and the U.S. government has imposed tough sanctions on Havana since 1961. Carter sought to normalize relations with Cuba during his presidency, and favors ending the 40-year old U.S. economic embargo. 

After meeting Castro for dinner late Sunday, the former Georgia governor and his 12-person entourage, which includes his wife, Rosalynn, are to visit the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a top Cuban research center, Monday. 

Carter will also meet with Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, as well as Cuban religious leaders and the head of the U.S. interest section in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, during the visit. 

The most eagerly-anticipated event will likely be Tuesday, when the 77-year-old Carter is scheduled to meet with college students and deliver a speech that authorities have promised to broadcast live on radio and television -- a unique event in which the former U.S. leader will be able to directly address the Cuban people. 

Carter also plans a walking tour of Old Havana, and trips to a medical school, an agricultural cooperative, a biotech institute, an AIDS clinic and a psychiatric ward. 

On Thursday, a day officially set aside for "personal activities," Carter is likely to meet with some of the island's political dissidents. He will conclude his visit with a press conference Friday. 

The only U.S. president to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge, who came to Havana in January 1928. 

Carter travels to the island at a time of greater than usual tension between the United States and Cuba - exactly one week after US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton accused Havana of researching and developing offensive biological weapons. 

Castro Friday described the charges as a "pack of Olympic-size lies" and challenged Washington to show proof of its accusations. 

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said he was hopeful that lasting, positive results would come about because of the visit. 

"Jimmy Carter is the guy in America who put human rights on the map," he said. "I hope that he won't let his legacy be tarnished" by not putting civil liberties on the agenda. 

But a former senior State Department official took a more cynical view, predicting that the well-meaning Carter would be bamboozled by Castro. 

"Of course Castro will use Jimmy," the ex-official said. "He is the master." 

Former U.S. vice president Dan Quayle also criticized Carter’s decision to visit Cuba.

"I would be surprised if the administration is jumping for joy that he is going down and going to try to elevate Fidel Castro," Quayle said.