PORT-OF-SPAIN – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning has sharply dismissed talk of his foreign minister Knowlson Gift being a candidate for the vacant post of Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Manning told a closed-door meeting of a group of Heads of Government and cabinet ministers that the only candidature for which T&T has a current interest in western hemispheric affairs at this time is that of securing Port-of-Spain as the operational headquarters for the emerging Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The Observer was reliably informed that the possibility of Gift’s having interest in the OAS top post was raised at last month’s retreat of Caricom Foreign Ministers in Barbados, hosted by the current chair, Dame Billie Miller.

When Manning heard of the suggestion, he reportedly expressed surprise in separate conversations with the governments of Barbados and Jamaica.

However, when the issue again resurfaced at a three-hour closed-door meeting he hosted on Sunday at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain, Manning was quite firm in declaring “no interest” by his government in offering a candidate for the OAS top post.

Barbados was not represented in any position at Sunday’s meeting. But Jamaica’s prime minister PJ Patterson reportedly made a “significant intervention” and articulated the importance of the OAS in policies and programmes of the Caribbean Community.

He also indicated that he did not expect that Caricom would at this stage have any serious interest in the post of OAS Secretary-General, left vacant last month by Cost Rica’s former President Miguel Angel Rodriguez who, after just two weeks in the job, had to return home to face charges on bribery allegations while he served as Head of State.

At Sunday’s meeting, the president of Suriname, Runaldo Venetiaan, sought a clarification of conflicting reports about Trinidad and Tobago’s possible interest in the vacant post of OAS Secretary-General, in view of the already unanimous endorsement by Caricom of the Surinamese envoy Albert Ramdin for the post of Assistant OAS Secretary-General in June 2005.

With foreign minister Gift at the meeting, Prime Minister Manning reassured his colleagues that T&T’s interest was the FTAA secretariat, and that there was no shift in his government’s position on the endorsement given for Suriname’s OAS candidacy.

Before addressing yesterday’s opening session of the 10th Special Summit of Caricom at the Trinidad Hilton, Manning told the Observer that he was “quite confident’ of his fellow Community Heads’ “full support” for Trinidad’s bid for the FTAA headquarters, and was also optimistic of decisive potential support from among countries of Central and South America.

In addition to the agenda item on the ‘OAS – what next’, the informal consultation hosted by Manning on Sunday also had an overview discussion on current economic situations in member states of the Community.

Those absent from the chat “exchange of views” were President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo; and prime ministers Owen Arthur of Barbados; Kenny Anthony, St Lucia; Ralph Gonsalves, St Vincent and the Grenadines; and Denzil Douglas, St Kitts and Nevis.