Scenes in New York and Washington after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

WASHINGTON -- The United States (US) plans to sponsor a conference on security in the Caribbean early next year as the Bush administration seeks to reinforce an anti-terrorism partnership with a region that the Americans describe as their third -- and a potentially vulnerable -- border.

The Americans are concerned that the Caribbean, a haven for millions of American tourists annually, could be a tempting soft target for terrorists bent on attacking US interests in the region. Both sides are now attempting to fashion joint counter-terrorism and other security initiatives.

"The State Department is planning to approach Caricom (the Caribbean Community) and the OAS (Organisation of American States) to put together a conference on terrorism in the Caribbean," said an administration official. "We hope this conference will take place early in the New Year."

Although the conference will be primarily for the 15-member Caricom it is likely to embrace other Caribbean nations.

BUSH... discussed regional security and the terrorist threat with Caribbean leaders at a lunch in New York last week

Regional security and the terrorist threat were among the issues that US President George W Bush discussed with Caribbean leaders at a lunch in New York last Wednesday.

In fact, earlier this month, William P Pope, the principal deputy co-ordinator for counter-terrorism, visited Barbados to brief East Caribbean leaders on Washington's counter-terrorism policies and initiatives.

"We are looking increasingly at the Caribbean because we are concerned that others may be looking at the Caribbean," Pope told regional journalists here at a briefing last Thursday.

US officials point out that several Americans operate in the Caribbean and that millions of US citizens holiday in the region each year -- nearly two million of whom go to Jamaica.

In that scenario, facilities, such as hotels frequented by Americans could be targets for attacks, similar to the Bali, Indonesia hotel bombing.

"That is the kind of thing that could be replicated in the Caribbean," Pope said. "... That sort of thing would be catastrophic."

The catastrophe would not only be in American lives but in the devastation of Caribbean economies, US officials selling the idea have stressed.

The Americans agree that the security threat to the region comes not only from radical Islamists and others with an anti-American agenda. Narco-traffickers are also a destabilising force for the small, poor states in the region.

In that regard, Pope said that the United States was already helping the Caribbean to strengthen their security, including financing a computerised immigration information system for the Caribbean.

But he stressed that information and intelligence-sharing would be critical to fighting the terrorist threat -- an area in which the United States had made headway with its international partners.

"The principal way for countries to protect themselves from terrorism is (with) intelligence," Pope said. "... Even small countries with limited resources (can do things to protect themselves) if they know what is going to happen."

Pope said that another possible weak spot for opportunistic exploitation by terrorists in the Caribbean was the banking and financial sector.

While there was always room for improvement and tighter laws against money laundering, significant progress had been made in the region, he said.

In fact, administration officials have pointed out, several Caribbean countries have, within the past year, been removed from the watch list maintained by the Organisation for Co-operation in Economic Development (OECD) of countries whose regulations for off-shore banks leave them open for abuse by tax evaders and money launderers.

Administration officials, as they seek to broaden the initiative to actively embrace the countries of the Caribbean, have made it clear that there will be no let up in the so so-called 'War on Terrorism' which Bush launched in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"We are fighting a new kind of war," said Chris Arcos, the director of international affairs in the Department of Homeland Security, the new agency created by Bush to co-ordinate security efforts inside the US.

Part of that war, officials explained, was to minimise the possibility of a future 9/11-type attack by making the US border less porous.

But a key element of the strategy was pre-emptive strikes against the would-be terrorists.

"We have decided not to wait and catch the al-Qaeda guys coming across the border," Pope said. "We have decided to go out and catch them."

This new approach, he said, rested on the fact that 9/11 was, for the American people, an "unparalleled catastrophe" that cut "so incredibly deep" into the national psyche.

"In my view, there is no question of whether we had to wage the war," said Pope, who insisted that despite some disagreement in areas of emphasis, the United States enjoyed strong international support for the campaign.

"We have excellent co-operation from our colleagues around the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere," he said.

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