A draft earlier prepared by Jamaica at the request of some community partners had some variations that would have required more time for "general acceptance", the `Chronicle' was informed last evening.

As a result, Jamaica went ahead and made its own presentation to the Security Council on Wednesday night. It called for a cease-fire and denounced the doctrine of "pre-emptive strike" and "regime change" that inspired the war against Iraq by the USA and Britain.

This stand by Jamaica resulted from some changes offered by three member states, reported to be Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and The Bahamas which wanted what diplomatic sources referred to as "unfortunate dilutions".

Jamaica's Foreign Minister K. D. Knight, however, declined to go beyond a brief comment when questioned on the matter last evening. He said: "We were unable to come to a common position in time and, therefore we (Jamaica) made our own statement before the UN Security Council".

The original intention was to reaffirm CARICOM's strongly expressed stand against military action against Iraq without the endorsement of the UN Security Council as originally articulated and unanimously recorded in the February 15 'Statement on Iraq'.

That statement was issued at the conclusion of the Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM heads of government in Port-of-Spain with the full participation of all heads of delegation.

The Foreign Minister of The Bahamas, Fred Mitchell, was unavailable for comment on the matter.

And it was noted yesterday that by their separate statements on Wednesday, both the Prime Ministers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves and Lester Bird of Antigua and Barbuda, had signalled their own difference in views that ran counter to the original CARICOM statement of February 15.

At least two Foreign Ministers said yesterday that while the original plan for a second statement had been "suspended", they could not say how soon the matter will be revisited.