Some hours later, following a luncheon session, and while Manning was winging his way back home, Arthur had his Government Information Service notifying the local and regional media for a late afternoon briefing on an "important development".

That development, about which Prime Minister Manning will brief a special session of his cabinet in Port-of-Spain today (Tuesday) was the disclosure that Barbados has decided to involve the United Nations in a "compulsory and binding arbitration process" to authoritatively resolve their maritime boundary dispute that has arisen from the 1990 Maritime Delimitation Treaty that Trinidad and Tobago signed with Venezuela. Prime Minister Manning, who reportedly arrived in a private jet, accompanied by, among others, Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift, left for home as he came, quietly and with no communication with the media.

The "Chronicle" was reliably informed that his meeting yesterday with the Barbados Prime Minister took place at his request on Sunday as a follow-up to his earlier telephone call to Arthur on Saturday morning, ahead of a scheduled live broadcast press conference by Arthur.

At that press conference, Arthur announced that as a consequence of the unresolved fishing rights dispute---which continues to be elusive after some 14 years---Barbados would add a range of imports from Trinidad and Tobago to a licensing regime.

The list of affected products---including fruits and vegetables, beer, aerated beverages, fish and ice cream---was to have been gazetted and made public yesterday. But it did not happen.

Arthur declined to take questions from the press following the reading of his prepared statement that focused heavily on the substantive issue of delimitation of maritime boundaries that has been fingered as the source for failure to enter into a new bilateral fishing agreement between the two countries.

But a clear signal came last evening that the proposed move to penalise Trinidad and Tobago exporters to Barbados, in retaliation for the continuing arrests of Barbadian fishermen by Trinidad and Tobago, would be temporarily shelved as both parties pursue new initiatives on the fishing row, without prejudice to the coming international arbitration process on their maritime boundaries.

It was learnt that this could come as soon as Friday, when Trade Ministers and officials of both countries meet, as expected in Port-of-Spain, in keeping with a suggestion by Prime Minister Manning.

Ahead of Friday's meeting, there is expected to be a resumption of talks, possibly tomorrow (Wednesday), on fishing rights, but without prejudice to the new development to have the maritime boundaries dispute settled under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Arthur said that the talks held with Manning and their respective ministerial team, were "cordial".

For his part, Manning has opted to avoid speaking with the media before today's special session with his cabinet, informed his Barbadian counterpart that having taken the 1990 maritime delimitation treaty between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to his cabinet, it was agreed that:

The treaty was law and that as a consequence Trinidad and Tobago could not act in contravention of the law"

But Arthur further stated that Manning "shares my assessment that there is no possibility of a negotiated settlement" of the maritime boundary dispute that "does not compromise the interests of Barbados and (also) Guyana".

Those interests, he said, "are confirmed and have their legal justification in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea".