Deputy Prime Minister, Kenneth Baugh will be in charge of the Government. - Contributed

Prime Minister Bruce Golding left the island yesterday to head Jamaica's delegation to the 12th special meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Guyana.

The three-day meeting is scheduled to end tomorrow.

During the meeting, discussions will be held on poverty and the rising cost of living in member states and the current status of the Cariforum-European union negotiations for an economic partnership agreement.

CARICOM-Cuba Day will also be observed tomorrow.

The decision to host the meeting follows a call by Grenadian Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, for a summit on rising food prices in the region. Jamaica has also been facing the challenge of rising food prices, which Prime Minister Golding has linked to the rise in world prices of wheat and fuel prices.

Members of the Jamaica delegation will include the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Investment, Karl Samuda; Jamaica's High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Peter Black; Ambassador Lorne McDonnough, under-secretary in the Foreign Trade Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; and Andrene Collings, senior director of commerce in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Investment.

In the absence of Prime Minister Golding, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr. Kenneth Baugh, will be in charge of the Govern-ment. The delegation will return to the island tomorrow.