GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Caribbean leaders at next month’s Caribbean Community summit will consider a US request to exempt Americans from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, officials said Thursday.

Fearing its peacekeepers could be exposed to politically motivated trials, the United States has been lobbying countries to sign agreements that would exempt Americans living abroad from trials in the court.

So far, 37 countries have signed US exemption agreements. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said this month he will also seek cooperation agreements with Caribbean nations.

“The matter is still under consideration,” said Guyana Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally.

The Hague, Netherlands-based court is modelled on the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed after July 1, 2002.

The Caribbean Community’s 15 member nations, who normally decide on major foreign policy issues as a bloc, have fully backed the court. Whether or not they support US exemptions, however, will be discussed at the June 29-July 5 summit in Jamaica.

Caribbean foreign ministers last month in St Vincent failed to reach consensus on the issue. Some have also expressed irritation with US plans to bypass the community and seek one-on-one agreements like it did with the “shiprider” agreements that allowed US authorities to chase suspected drug smugglers into some Caribbean nations’ waters and airspace.

Trinidad, one of the first proponents for the court’s establishment, has already rejected the exemption, with Prime Minister Patrick saying his country could not support US efforts to undermine the court’s power.

Prosecutors on the International Criminal Court will only be able to prosecute crimes in member countries, unless asked to intervene either by the United Nations Security Council or a nonmember country. There are currently 90 member countries, including the entire European Union, Canada and Australia. The United States doesn’t recognise the court’s authority.

Last week, the United States won another yearlong exemption for American peacekeepers from prosecution by the court in a vote at the United Nations, but the EU warned the immunity would not be permanent.