Technical issues relating to the border between Guyana and Suriname were not discussed in the talks between Suriname's President, Ronald Venetiaan and President Bharrat Jagdeo during the latter's visit to Suriname last month.

Jagdeo said this at a press conference on Friday at the Presidential Secretariat in response to a question about whether the demilitarization of the New River Triangle had been discussed with Venetiaan. Such matters would be dealt with at the level of the Border Commissions, he told reporters. "What I wanted to do and what we have achieved on both sides," said Jagdeo, "is to set in train the process where any matter could be considered at that level." A 1971 agreement concluded between then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and premier Henk Arron of Suriname provided for the demilitarisation of Guyana's New River Triangle, which Suriname is claiming as its territory.

President Jagdeo, at the joint press conference with the Suriname President at the end of his visit to the neighbouring country, had said that Guyana had troops in the New River area and that they had been there for a long time. President Venetiaan said that he had raised the issue as a matter of concern for Suriname during his meetings with his guest, but had not pursued it in depth.

President Jagdeo on Friday said he hoped that the Opposition would be briefed on the issue and that they would lend their expertise so that a national position could be developed.

He said too that he was hoping that once the parliamentary sectoral committee on foreign affairs had been established, these matters would be debated in its public and private sessions, as its recommendations would heavily influence the government's position.

Asked about his comments in Suriname that there were groups opposed to his offer of joint exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in the maritime zone, President Jagdeo said that they were small and insignificant groups and he did not care to name them.

Meanwhile, Suriname's President, Ronald Venetiaan, hit back at his detractors who were critical of his administration's decision to sign a joint declaration with Guyana supporting co-operation in a number of areas, including joint exploitation of their marine resources. And he reassured them that his administration's "task is to make clear to the world and especially to Guyana" that Suriname's western border takes in the New River Triangle.

His comments were made in a report to the Surinamese National Assembly, which must approve all agreements with foreign states entered into by an administration.

According to a report last week in the Suriname daily De Ware Tijd (DWT), President Venetiaan was said to have told Parliament that the matter of the New River Triangle should be dealt with by the border commissions.

He told the parliamentarians too that the issue was not a straightforward one, because Guyana would also refer "to documents signed in the past thinking that the area is theirs."

In recent times Suriname has been publishing maps depicting the New River Triangle as part of that nation's territory. One of these was used by the neighbouring country's oil company, Staatsolie, during its presentation to President Jagdeo when he visited the refinery.

At his press conference on Friday Jagdeo told reporters that he had expressed his dissatisfaction about the map to his hosts, even though they had explained that it was a standard presentation which the oil company used for investors all over the world, and that no slight was intended to him.

According to DWT, President Venetiaan also said in the Surinamese Parliament, when reporting on Jagdeo's visit, that the Jules Wijdenbosch administration had been "willing to agree to a joint oil and gas exploitation with Guyana in the Horseshoe [sic] area," and that "a declaration of intention was signed in July 2000."

The newspaper went on to say that he had told Parliament that his predecessor, Dr Jules Wijdenbosch, had been right to eject the oil rig, but that the Widjenbosch administration should have known that his administration would have had other insights about joint research and exploitation of the natural resources in the disputed area.

A subsequent report in DWT of February 4, said that Wijdenbosch had since refuted the statements made by President Venetiaan, maintaining that his administration had taken the position that it was prepared to discuss any issue save Suriname's ownership of the area where the CGX oil rig had set up to drill.

That position meant that Guyana had to recognise that the area belonged to Suriname, the permits had to be provided by Suriname and that the company to undertake the exploration had to be identified by Suriname. Guyana had rejected this position in 2000 at the second round of the meetings with Suriname held in Georgetown, and at subsequent meetings in Paramaribo, Canouan, St Vincent and Montego Bay and Kingston, Jamaica.

President Venetiaan condemned the organisations that had promoted a boycott of President Jagdeo's address to the Surinamese parliament claiming they did not realise what the real position of the previous administration had been on the issue. DWT reported President Venetiaan as saying that he had indicated his commitment to joint exploration and exploitation during a visit to Brazil.