PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has denied links with Kareem Ibrahim, one of the accused in the alleged JFK terror plot in New York, despite a claim by Ibrahim's daughter that he was a personal acquaintance of the country's leader.

"I knoweth not the man," the prime minister told a public meeting at the Barataria Regional Complex on Wednesday night.

Manning said the fact that Ibrahim's daughter had made the claim that her father knows him is nothing short of an act of political desperation by the opponents of his governing People's National Movement (PNM).

"All of this," according to Man-ning, "was nothing but foolish prop-aganda."

Ibrahim of Trinidad and three other men born in Guyana - Abdul Kadir, Russell Defreitas, and Abdel Nur - were arrested and charged with conspiracy to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at JFK Airport.

Ibrahim's daughter, Huda, told a press conference on Tuesday that Manning and her father were friends and would often meet at a special house after PNM political meetings in the east of the country.

A statement swiftly followed from the PNM, distancing the party and its political leader from the terrorist suspect.

Newspaper report

Meanwhile, a newspaper report here Thursday states that U.S. immigration authorities are putting pressure on Trnidadian and Guyanese visitors to the U.S. following the arrest of the four men.

Passengers aboard Caribbean Airlines flight BW 424, which arrived at JFK on Tuesday evening, were given special attention by the Customs and Border Control officials. In the past, arriving passengers would simply go to immigration for clearance.

Several Trinidadians were, reportedly, pulled out of the line and "further screened" inside a room before they were given clearance to move on.

According to an immigration officer, this special attention on arriving passengers from Trinidad and Guyana will continue in-definitely.