PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Prime Minister Patrick Manning says he is very hopeful of new economic support for the Caribbean under the Barack Obama presidency in the United States (US).

Following his inauguration as US President on January 20 next year, Obama is scheduled to join fellow hemispheric leaders in Trinidad and Tobago next year for the Fifth Summit of the Americas from April 17-19.

It will be the first time that the Caribbean will be hosting the summit that was first held in Miami in 1994.

Manning said he was hopeful that Obama would agree to a new economic aid package discussed with Chairman of the powerful US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, last month.

transition team

"We agreed at that time to work quietly behind the scenes to develop a plan that could be advanced to the Obama transition team, designed, at the appropriate time, to have the administration buy into a programme that is acceptable to governments in the Caribbean," Manning told reporters at the weekly post Cabinet briefing on Thursday.

He also disclosed that an official from Trinidad and Tobago had visited New York last weekend to take forward work on the programme, which was also discussed at the level of the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

package

"We are hoping that before President Obama comes to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit on 17, 18 and 19 April he would be in a position, if he so wishes, to announce some kind of package that affects the Caribbean.

"But, that is entirely up to him. What we are doing is our homework," Manning said.

The Trinidadian leader, who has just returned to the island following visits to Germany and Dubai, said he was also hopeful that he could hold energy talks with Obama in the near future.

He made reference to the oil rich republic's export of energy products, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States, saying "Trinidad and Tobago occupies a very strategic position vis-a-vis the US".

"We also export a significant amount of iron and steel to the US market. But we want certain guaranteed access arrangements in respect of all these commodities as well as for plastics and aluminium," he noted.