Fiji has invited the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, to attend the summit of African, Caribbean and Pacific leaders to be held in Nadi in July.
President Castro is among several high profile world leaders invited to the meeting which is the first international conference of its type in the country since the coup.
Among the others are the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and the founder and CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates.
Mr Gates has already turned down the invitation citing previous commitments.
A government spokesman says President Castro has been invited in his capacity as leader of one of the states in the ACP group which has a multi billion dollar trade and aid agreement with the European Union.
