BRIDGETOWN, CMC - The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is planning an emergency summit for next month to deal with the implications for the region of the shocking and devastating September 11 attacks on the USA by terrorists.

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, of The Bahamas and current Chairman of CARICOM, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) yesterday that from communications he has had with fellow heads of government, the summit should take place in Nassau at "the most convenient period in October".

The specific date for the summit was expected to be finalised by yesterday evening. A draft CARICOM statement on the terrorism unleashed against the USA and consequences for regions like the Caribbean was also being considered Thursday for release.

The emergency CARICOM summit will be held in place of the originally planned special Caribbean Tourism Summit that was scheduled to be hosted by The Bahamas from October 20-21.

But, as Prime Minister Ingraham explained in a telephone interview, since major stakeholders of the tourism industry from the USA and other participants have signalled their unavailability for the Tourism Summit in view of the current "international climate resulting from the terrorists' attacks on the USA", it was agreed that it should be rescheduled, possibly for later in the year.

Ingraham said he and his CARICOM colleagues were in agreement that the crisis triggered in the USA had some serious implications for the Caribbean, not the least being "security issues".

He was, therefore, ready to host the emergency summit next month at which consideration would also be given to a more appropriate date for his government to host the rescheduled Tourism Summit.

The Bahamas and Jamaica are said to be the most severely affected English-speaking Caribbean tourism destinations as a direct consequence of the problems created for international air transportation, postponements in travel arrangements and hotel bookings by tourists and business travellers following the attacks on the USA.

Thursday's `Daily Nation' of Barbados reported Prime Minister Owen Arthur as saying that he had discussed with Prime Minister Ingraham his government's preparedness to host the Tourism Summit if this could no longer be done next month by The Bahamas.

But Ingraham told the CMC that to have maximum possible participation in such a summit, given the vital importance of tourism to various economies in the region, was essential. It was therefore better to have it postponed for a later date when his government will host it as previously committed.

Speaking from Belize with the CMC, the Secretary General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington, said he and Prime Minister Ingraham have been "working the telephones" trying to get agreement by the Community's heads of government on a most "suitable" date for the proposed emergency summit in The Bahamas.

Carrington explained that one of the "practical constraints" against such a meeting of Community leaders taking place early next month, was their prior commitment to participate in the Commonwealth Summit scheduled for Brisbane, Australia from October 6-9.

With the unavoidable postponement of the October 20-21 Tourism Summit, and the holding of the Commonwealth Summit from October 6-9, it means that efforts will be made to arrive at a date most convenient to the CARICOM heads of government, said Carrington.

Trinidad and Tobago is reported to be "most anxious", according to one ministerial source, for the heads of government to meet and discuss "national/regional security issues" in the context of international terrorism and foreign funding of "domestic groups".

There could be no official confirmation that this was an implicit reference to the Trinidad and Tobago-based religious/social group, Jamat-al-Muslimeen headed by Abu Bakr who has openly denied being funded by Libya.