Other priority areas include the provision of consular services; the maintenance of friendly relations with other countries, and ensuring that Guyana's interests are advanced and pursued wherever possible.

At a Thursday news conference, Foreign Minister Dr. Rudy Insanally pointed out that emphasis will also be placed on the promotion of the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

The ministry also has high on its agenda - for this year - the promotion of sustainable development. The minister explained that this is so, particularly since Guyana will this year be joining the Executive Council of the Global Environment Facility, as an alternate member to Cuba.

According to Insanally, this move will place Guyana in a very strategic position in which to assert its concerns in the environmental field.

He said the 2003 programme will address, among other things, the furtherance of good relations with neighbouring countries; the advancement of diplomatic representation and consular services abroad, and more especially in the Caribbean.

It will also explore the continued accession by Guyana to major international treaties and conventions, especially in the light that the world is now linked together by a network that provides some sort of global governance, and forms the basis of international co-operation.

The ministry has also identified for urgent consideration this year the advancing of the New Global Human Order Initiative, conceived around the early 1990's, to secure a more just and equitable international system.

He assured that having secured the unanimous endorsement by the international community at the United Nations, this initiative, as far as possible, will be vigorously advanced.

Insanally also said that, after a lapse of about three years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs intends pursuing the holding of a retreat for Guyana's Heads of Missions and have an exchange of priorities, with a view to implementing those.

Meanwhile, touching on border relations, he noted that this must, of necessity, occupy paramountcy in the area of diplomatic relations.

He said the ministry hopes to establish firm links with the new administration of Brazil, and to identify other areas of cooperation. It is hoped that agreements already reached in 2002 can be consolidated, and other promising areas explored.

He alluded to visits he and Prime Minister Sam Hinds made to Brazil, adding that while they were there, they signed the Memorandum of Political Consultation.

Insanally is optimistic that in the near future there will be a second round of such consultations which will serve to accelerate Guyana's cooperation with that country.

In addition, there were other visits last year from the Brazilian side, out of which came programmes of cooperation and demarcation exercises, among others.

The minister said that Guyana will be formally opening the Honorary Consulate in Boa Vista, Brazil at month end, and will be examining what other similar services could be set up.

He also cited areas of cooperation which included implementing agreements already reached through the Cooperation Council, which will pave the way for addressing and resolving problems in relation to Customs, Immigration and Policing.

"We intend to use this instrument to try and deal with such problems in an amicable and positive manner as possible," the minister assured.

In relation to Suriname, Insanally was also hopeful that measures could be identified to remove any obstacles likely to affect Guyana's relations with that country.

And as regards Venezuela, he noted that the bureaucracy of procedure will continue.