CASTRIES, St Lucia (AP) - China will pay for a new mental hospital in the Caribbean country of St Lucia, officials said yesterday.

Work on the US$10 million (EC$27 million, euro8 million) project will begin in November and should be completed within 18 months, said Gu Huaming, China's ambassador to St Lucia.

The hospital will be part of a new medical complex that will replace the century-old buildings that house the old mental and general hospitals in the capital, Castries.

The 104-bed mental hospital will be built by Chinese and St Lucian workers and will more than double the capacity of the old one. China will also help equip the facility, Gu said.

The new mental hospital is part of a broader plan to reform health services in the former British colony of 166,000 people, said Health Minister Damien Greaves.

Its design reflects the government's goal of reintegrating mental patients into society, said architect Augustin Poyotte.
St Lucia established diplomatic relations with China in 1997, breaking 13-year-old ties with the Asian country's rival, Taiwan. China has since financed a sports stadium and a free zone in St Lucia.

In recent years, China has aggressively campaigned for diplomatic recognition in the Caribbean, persuading islands to switch loyalties from Taiwan with offers of generous aid packages and promises to send tourists.

Although democratic Taiwan is self-governing, communist Beijing insists the island that broke away amid civil war in 1949 still is part of China.

In January, Grenada became the latest Caribbean country to establish ties with China, leaving Taiwan with only four allies in the region - Haiti, the Dominican Republic, St Kitts and St Vincent.

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