GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP):

Caribbean support for revived global trade talks will depend on the willingness of the United States and European Union to ease trade barriers, Guyana's Trade Minister said yesterday.

Henry Jeffrey said the mostly small island nations will express their concerns in meetings this week with the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, who is seeking a resumption of talks that collapsed in July.

"Our position remains quite clear, that we are small and vulnerable and need special treatment and safeguards," Jeffrey said. "We have to ensure that we are not hurting ourselves when we become linked to the global marketplace."

Lamy, chief of the Geneva-based organisation, is scheduled to meet with Trade Ministers from about 15 countries on Thursday and Friday in Jamaica.

The ministers also plan to review an offer from the EU to remove import quotas and tariffs on products from about 70 poor African, Caribbean and Pacific nations beginning in January. Regional governments say they want to discuss the proposal announced last week before replying to the EU.