Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will visit Cuba next week for talks with head of state Raul Castro and other officials, the Carter Center said Friday.

Carter, who will be accompanied by wife Rosalynn, is making the trip at the invitation of the Cuban government, the former president’s Atlanta-based nonprofit organization said.

During their March 28-30 stay on the island, the couple “will meet with President Raul Castro and other Cuban officials and citizens to learn about new economic policies and the upcoming (Communist) Party Congress, and to discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations,” according to a statement from the Carter Center.

Noting that Mr. and Mrs. Carter last went to Cuba in May 2002, the center described their upcoming visit as a “private, nongovernmental mission.”

Cuban officials say former U.S. President Jimmy Carter plans also to meet with Jewish leaders during his visit to Havana. That could hint that his visit may deal partly with the case of a U.S. contractor whose conviction has further dented relations between Havana and Washington.

An agenda released by Cuba’s Foreign Relations Ministry says Carter is to visit a Jewish institution shortly after arriving Monday.

Mr Carter’s visit comes days after a Cuban court sentenced US contractor Alan Gross to 15 years in prison for crimes against the state for bringing illegal satellite communications equipment into the country.

Mr Gross, 61, was arrested in December 2009 while working on a USAid-backed democracy-building project.

The US government and Mr Gross’s family said he was working to improve internet access for the island’s Jewish community and should be released immediately.

Cuba rejects these claims, saying Mr Gross was a “mercenary” working on a programme paid for by Washington that aimed to bring down Cuba’s revolutionary system.

US officials say that no rapprochement is possible while Mr Gross remains jailed. Cuba, however, has presented Mr Gross as evidence of US intentions to unleash a “cyberwar” to destabilise the island.

(Source: Fox News)