GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

TEN CARIBBEAN Community (CARICOM) nations began to operate as a single domestic space yesterday, allowing travellers smooth movement throughout the zone in advance of the Cricket World Cup.

CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington was expected to announce the start of the three-and-a-half month-long initiative in a regionally broadcast message, yesterday.

Travel with passports

"Travellers, whatever their nationality, will not normally have to present their passports or have them stamped at ports of entry of the other countries within the single domestic space," the secretary general said. "Persons are, however, still advised to travel with their passport in the event that it is needed for identification purposes."

The February 1-May 15 designation of the region as a single domestic space is being seen as an important though temporary step to help strengthen the Caribbean's integration thrust.

Single space

Effective yesterday, nine host venue countries of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 - Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago - together with Dominica, will function as a single domestic space.

The destination is one of the key components of the security plan put in place for the March 4 to April 28 international sporting event.

"The single domestic space is a unique response to this set of unprecedented challenges. Therefore, as of this morning (Thursday), all domestic travellers should be accorded complete freedom of movement within the single domestic space," Carrington said.