The three-page draft is expected to be approved, with some "minor changes", according to informed ministerial sources who confirmed that CARICOM's stand for a "central role" in post-war Iraq for the United Nations was a "central element" of the new statement to be released.

Correspondence was flowing across regional capitals, and primarily involving the Community Secretariat, CARICOM's current Chairman Prime Minister Pierre Charles of Dominica and Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson who hosted the two-day meeting of the Bureau in Montego Bay, with a view to releasing either by last night or today the approved statement.

It is expected to reflect, for instance, a strong stand in favour of "multilateralism" in the conduct of international affairs and emphasise the need for respect by all nations for the "authority of the Security Council" in an "increasingly inter-dependent world..."

The Community's heads of government are also expected to concur with the suggestion outlined in the Bureau's draft statement urging "immediate attention" be given to a "just resolution" of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the context of a new effort to promote a lasting peace in the Middle East.

At the weekend Montego Bay meeting of the Bureau -- the so-called management committee of CARICOM -- the consequences for the region of the war in Iraq focused on areas such as tourism, the "parlous situation" of regional airlines and the "volatility of energy prices" that injects unpredictability into economic planning.

The Bureau is normally comprised of three heads of government -- the current chairman of the Community, the immediate past chairman and the incoming chairman, plus the Secretary General.