BASSETERRE, St Kitts – The Caribbean Community has decided against any immediate recognition of the interim regime in Port-au-Prince but will keep the door open for the interim government to participate in the councils of Caricom, which it joined in 1998.

The exact formulation of Caricom-Haiti relations without ousted president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, was being finalised in an official text due to be released late last night at the conclusion of the two-day 15th Inter-Sessional Meeting of Community heads of government.

The communiqué will also indicate that Caricom will send troops in June as part of a United Nations multinational peace-keeping force, in addition to establishing a task force to consider possible technical and other forms of assistance for the people of Haiti. Prime Minister Manning said that Trinidad & Tobago will send 116 soldiers and five officers as part of the twin island republic’s contribution to the peace-keeping force.

Jamaica and other contributing Caricom states will announce their contingents later.

Earlier yesterday, before those decisions were taken, the leaders were locked in a marathon caucus session to resolve differing initial positions on conditionalities for possible engagement with what is viewed by some of the heads of government as an “administrative authority” in Port-au-Prince, as distinct from “a government”.

Jamaica’s prime minister, P J Patterson, who had played a leading role in brokering a resolution to the governance crisis in Haiti while Aristide was still in power, emerged from a plenary session around 7 o’ clock last night and told the Observer that the draft statement on Haiti would reflect a “satisfactory common position”.

Since Haiti dominated most of the deliberations of the two-day meeting, discussions on other agenda issues suffered and will be addressed at the regular annual Caricom summit scheduled for Grenada in July.

But the challenging problem of crime and security that remains of deep concern to a number of Caricom countries – especially Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana – was considered, based on a presentation by Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Manning was scheduled to leave for home last night, ahead of the release of the conference communiqué that would include the final position on Caricom relations with post-Aristide Haiti.