Guyana and Venezuela yesterday agreed to pursue new initiatives to improve bilateral relations in the backdrop of their longstanding border controversy and their foreign ministers are to set up a `hotline' for continuous contact.

But agreement on the initiatives did not mask the difference in approaches to the issue of investment in the Essequibo - which Caracas claims - with Venezuela believing that it should be dealt with under the aegis of the High Level Bilateral Commission (HLBC) of the UN Good Officer process and Guyana insisting that as a sovereign country it had a responsibility to develop its natural resources for the benefit of its citizens.

But despite this dissension, Guyana is to accede to the Caracas Energy Accord at the summit of the Association of Caribbean States scheduled to open on December 10, on Margarita Island in Venezuela. No details were released on what the accord would make available but it is expected that the fuel would be cheaper and an attractive credit facility would be put in place.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has extended a personal invitation to President Bharrat Jagdeo to attend the meeting where they will sign the accord.

Foreign Minister, Rudy Insanally, stressed at the joint press conference he and his Venezuelan counterpart Luis Alfonso Davila Garcia hosted at the Foreign Service Institute that there were more things on which they agreed than the one issue on which there was disagreement.

He stressed too that the mandate of the HLBC was clear and Guyana did not wish to add to or subtract from it.

The press conference was the final engagement in a two-day visit by Davila, which he described as an "extraordinary personal and professional experience" and one, which would give a new momentum to the relationship between the two countries.

It was a view shared by Insanally, who pledged to work to ensure that the spirit demonstrated in the discussion was not lost in the continuing deliberations of the organs of the HLBC. He also described it as a preparatory trip for President Chavez's visit to Guyana in the near future.

One of the new initiatives announced by Davila was the intention to have more frequent meetings between the facilitators of the UN Good Officer process -- the Good Officer, the UN Secretary General and the two foreign ministers -- during the first quarter of next year. He said he anticipated that in the climate of cooperation, such meetings should be able to advance a programme of activities, which should lead to a peaceful and practical settlement of the border controversy.

Insanally, answering another question, alluded to the mandate of the UN Secretary General-facilitated process as being to find a peaceful resolution to the controversy simmering for decades.

Another initiative unveiled was the re-launching of the work of the HLBC with a meeting in February of the full commission, which is intended to giver a sharper focus to the work of the various subcommittees and introduction of a review mechanism to assess the progress being made by its various organs. That review mechanism kicks in about four months after the meeting in February.

And to ensure that the climate being created by the work of the HLBC remained, Davila said that he and Insanally intended to establish a "hotline", described as their secret weapon, so that they could always be in permanent and continuous contact. They contended that problems were solved when there was communication.

Insanally, too, was very upbeat about the results of the visit explaining that it had opened a window of opportunity, described by Davila as the "Demerara window". He explained that the agreement on the continued use of the Good Officer process reflected the consensus that it still remained a useful tool in the efforts to resolve the border controversy peacefully and they would work to make it more effective in dealing with issues which arise from the controversy.

In recent years, top Venezuelan leaders - most notably Chavez - have ramped up rhetoric over the border controversy and there have been incursions by the Venezuelan military into Guyana's airspace. Caracas has also embarked on an aggressive campaign to dissuade investors from sinking money into Essequibo. The failed Beal satellite launching venture was one case in point and two potential oil explorers were scared off after Venezuela threatened to send its navy into areas of Guyana's offshore zone where these companies were considering exploring.

Insanally pledged Guyana's cooperation in making Venezuela's chairmanship of the Group of 77 effective, given President Chavez's oft stated concerns about social progress, peace and security of developing countries. It was important, he stressed, that great use be made of Venezuela's period at the head of the grouping.

About the HLBC, he expressed the hope that in the new climate of cooperation there should soon be projects in all areas covered by the activities of the HLBC.

Commenting on the state of the relations between the two countries, Insanally remarked that Guyana's accession to the Caracas Energy Accord was indicative that it had moved pass the stage where petroleum was considered a political weapon as Davila's predecessor Jose Vicente Rangel had remarked when Venezuela had initially seemed to have excluded Guyana from the offer of beneficiary status to the rest of CARICOM.

He added that the HLBC was intended to address the irritants in the relations with Guyana when asked if the activities by the Venezuelan military in the past two years which gave rise to much concern here would not undermine the climate being created.

Insanally explained that the need for advance notification of these activities was critical in their joint endeavours at ridding their societies of the traffic in illegal drugs.

About the treatment of Guyanese living illegally in Venezuela, both Insanally and Davila said that it was an issue that was covered by the mandate of the HLBC sub-committee that dealt with consular matters. Davila, a former home affairs minister, said that in his previous office, he had addressed this problem, calling it a great task and one for which the HLBC should be able to find an appropriate response.

Commenting on the issue of the demarcation of the maritime border between the two countries, Davila said that this would be addressed under the Good Officer process

He stressed, however, that there existed the possibility that progress could be made on a number of other issues, which did not have to await the resolution of this issue.