GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP)- Six Caribbean countries that had refused to join a regional trade bloc were likely to sign up in late June after receiving promises of aid to offset losses to their economies, officials said Thursday.

Manning. confident the countries would now join by June 30

The islands of St Kitts, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Grenada and Antigua had resisted coming on board, concerned that the single market's ending of import taxes in the free trade area would hurt local industry and that they would be flooded by products from the bigger countries in the region.

Finance officials have recently finalised plans for a US$250 million development fund to help the smaller countries - a condition they had set for joining the Caribbean Single Market, Patrick Manning, chairman of the 15-member Caribbean Community, said Wednesday as he travelled throughout the region.

Manning was confident the countries would now join by June 30, Leonard Robertson, Caricom spokesman, said Thursday. He did not provide further details about the fund.

In January, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados launched the single market, which was designed to facilitate the movement of goods, services and certain categories of workers between members of the trade bloc.

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