Talks on the maritime impasse between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were shelved yesterday after both countries failed to agree on the agenda for a meeting.

This was announced yesterday just as a high level delegation from Trinidad was scheduled to travel to Barbados to restart negotiations between the two countries, which are locked in a fishing rights row.

According to the Barbados Nation, Barbados' Attorney General Mia Mottley yesterday encouraged her country's fishermen to continue to fish in disputed waters off the Coast of Tobago, where Trinidad's Coast Guard has been rigorously enforcing laws governing the control of its territorial waters. As a result, several Barbadian fishermen have been arrested for fishing in the disputed waters.

The two countries are yet to agree to a fishing agreement because of a Maritime Delimitation Treaty between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, which Barbados has now decided to challenge under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Barbados under the convention has triggered a dispute resolution mechanism seeking to have the impasse resolved by a tribunal.

Mottley said yesterday that if Barbadian fishermen are arrested for fishing in the disputed area outside Trinidad's 12-mile territorial boundary while the matter was before an arbitration committee Barbados would respond in the strongest possible terms.

The departure of a delegation from Trinidad and Tobago was deferred yesterday after Barbados indicated that the planned meeting should have been used to determine the procedure for arbitration, venue and other matters relating to the constitution of the tribunal.

Late yesterday afternoon the Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Ministry announced that its delegation had not left after a Diplomatic Note from Barbados was received earlier in the day. According to the statement the Note was receiving the urgent attention of the Government and it was cited as the reason for the deferral of fishing talks which the Ministry said were due to start today in Barbados. Barbados has however said that the talks are not centred around the fishing dispute but the delimitation agreement between Trinidad and Venezuela.

As a consequence, the departure of the 13-member delegation from Trinidad and Tobago which was headed by Public Administration and Information Minister Lenny Saith was postponed. So too was an address to the nation by Trinidad Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift on the state of negotiations to conclude a fishing agreement with Barbados. It will now take place tonight.

The maritime delimitation agreement between Venezuela and Trinidad infringes upon the maritime boundaries of Barbados as well as Guyana. Foreign Affairs Minister Rudy Insanally says this country is following the developments in the dispute very closely.

Yesterday, Insanally told Stabroek News that the government is still apprising itself of the developments of the dispute. He noted the import of the government being informed fully about the dispute before it contemplates any action and said his Ministry was in constant contact with various sources on the matter.

"There is going to be no action without information, we have to be properly informed before we contemplate any action," said Insanally, while he also reiterated his earlier position that Guyana would take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the country's rights are preserved.

Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press statement on the issue. The statement said the Guyana Government had noted the recent developments between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, relative to their maritime space. It also said that Government would not comment on the issue but reserved the right to do so in the future.

A day earlier, Insanally had told Stabroek News that Guyana, in 2002, indicated to both Venezuela and Trinidad that the agreement impinged on certain portions of the country's maritime space. He said too that these concerns were also registered with the United Nations Secretary General.

Barbados PM Owen Arthur had pointed out that the delimitation treaty purports unilaterally to appropriate to Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago an enormous part of Barbados' and Guyana's maritime territory.

Sources yesterday told Stabroek News that on the eve of General Elections in 1992 a delegation from Guyana's Foreign Affairs Ministry was supposed to visit Trinidad to hold talks about the agreement and its implications. But the trip was aborted as it was seen as untimely.

Meanwhile, former Director General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cedric Joseph warns that the current dispute between Barbados and Trinidad has serious implications for the entire Caribbean Community.

Joseph told Stabroek News that CARICOM has to tackle the question of the use of the Exclusive Economic Zone by member states and set principles for the sharing of the resources of the Caribbean Sea given the likelihood that similar disputes could occur.

"CARICOM already has a major problem between Guyana and Suriname. Now there is a second problem between Barbados and Trinidad. The time has come now for them to sit down and set certain principles," he said.

Barbados has already formally notified Trinidad that a dispute settlement mechanism under the UNCLOS was activated and has appointed an arbitrator in Vaughan Lowe, Professor of International Law at Oxford University. Barbados Attorney General Mottley will lead the arbitration delegation to the UN.

On Monday, Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning met with Arthur in Barbados where they held closed door talks to resolve the issue. It was after this Barbados announced the approach to the tribunal.

The sanctions against Trinidad's exports have not been implemented by Barbados, which has also signalled its willingness to explore bilateral solutions, which would not prejudice the final delimitation under the UNCLOS.