St Vincent and the Grenadine's Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves (centre) waves as he chats with Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur (left) and Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer during a break at the 25th Caribbean Community summit in St George's, Grenada, yesterday. (Photo: AP)

ST GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) - As Caribbean leaders prepared to discuss whether to reverse policy and recognise Haiti's US-backed interim government, St Vincent yesterday said it would not bend on the issue while Jamaica now says it's willing to compromise.

Other countries taking a tough stance on the issue include Guyana and St Lucia, officials said.

Meanwhile Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and the Bahamas have signalled their intention to vote for Haiti retaking its seat at the 15-nation Caribbean Community. Cabinet ministers from several other member states said they planned to follow suit.

St Vincent, however, is among a few countries taking a hard-line stance, officials said.

"Those who want to compromise, let them compromise," Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said yesterday, a day before leaders retreat to a private island to formally discuss the Haiti issue. "The government of St Vincent does not recognise the (Gerard) Latortue administration."

The Caribbean Community withheld support for Haiti's interim prime minister Latortue's government at a March summit in St Kitts, expressing concern about President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's claim that he was kidnapped in a coup by the United States.

The regional bloc also was angry about Latortue's subsequent praise for armed rebels who helped oust an elected president and still control much of Haiti's countryside.
US officials deny Aristide's charge and say they provided a plane for him to leave Haiti on February 29, at his request, as rebels closed in on Port-au-Prince. Aristide says he was taken against his will to the Central African Republic.

Jamaica later gave Aristide temporary exile in a move that angered the interim Haitian government. After little more than a 10-week stay, Aristide left Jamaica - about 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Haiti's shores - for South Africa on May 30.

Separately yesterday, Caribbean leaders debated how to deal with thousands of criminal deportees being thrown out of foreign countries at a time when small nations grapple with rising crime, unemployment and economic uncertainty.

Caribbean officials said they were worried that an influx to one country in the region would have implications for other islands.

"Our societies are fearful that the unchecked number of criminal deportees across Caricom borders will be an unwelcome and immediate outcome of a full-fledged single market in the Caribbean," said Antigua's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of plans to establish a European-style free market by December that would involve free travel.

Last month, British officials said they would send home hundreds of Jamaicans behind bars in Britain to cut costs and ease overcrowding.

The plan has angered some Jamaican officials who worry the influx will add to the Caribbean island's crime woes.

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