THE foreign ministry last night confirmed what has been cocktail circuit talk for weeks, that businesswoman Audrey Marks will sprint into history as Jamaica’s ambassador-designate to Washington.

If the United States signs off on the appointment, the founder of Paymaster, the lucrative bill paying company, would be the first Jamaican woman ambassador to the US capital, succeeding former senator Anthony Johnson.

“We have received the agrément (diplomatic speak for greenlight) for her appointment from the US Government,” said a foreign ministry spokesman who was contacted by the Observer.

But the US State Department last night would not confirm the appointment from their end, saying only that it was awaiting Marks’ credentials before giving its go-ahead.

State Department spokesman Noel Gay told the Observer that the department would act on the appointment “as soon as those credentials are received”.

Credentials are usually presented when the ambassador-designate arrives in the receiving country and the spokesman could have been referring to the documents proposing the ambassador-designate.

Asked how quickly the State Department would act after receiving her credentials, Gay could not say what the procedure would be.

But US approval would be greeted with a sigh of relief in Kingston where tensions are still high in the running dispute over US demands for extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the Tivoli Gardens ‘don’ they want for alleged arms and drug trafficking.

Jamaica has said no to the demands, on grounds that the evidence against Coke was illegally obtained in violation of his right to freedom of expression, and is asking for more information.

In the weeks before last night’s confirmation of Marks by the Jamaican foreign ministry, speculation was rife in Kingston that her appointment was being held up because of the extradition stand-off. It is also widely believed here that the non-appointment of a US ambassador to Jamaica is related to the same dispute.

White House spokesman Ben Chang told the Observer, through an aide last night, that there was still no appointment of a US ambassador to succeed Brenda LaGrange Johnson who vacated the post more than a year ago.

Chang would only say that “an announcement will be made as soon as an appointment is made”.

— Additional reporting by Harold G Bailey in New York