In a release, Caricom's trade office said the regional grouping, Caricom, Mexico, Canada and Chile had asked for a meeting of the trade negotiations Committee of the FTAA prior to the fourth Summit of the Americas set for Argentina next month.

But the request, sent September 1 to the Brazilian and US co-chairs of the committee, has been met "with stony silence," the Caribbean regional negotiating machinery (RNM) said.

It said this was the third occasion on which CARICOM has written to the co-chairs expressing concern about the impasse in negotiations, without an official response.

Caricom is concerned that the current version of the draft declaration of the summit is silent on the FTAA.

"The Caricom letter to the co-chairs noted that the FTAA is an integral part of the Summit process, and that a clear signal needed to come from the highest political level in the hemisphere, of the continuing commitment to the goals and objectives of the FTAA," the RNM said.

The Free Trade Area of the Americas was intended to come into force at the end of 2005 but that deadline will be missed because of a stalemate in talks.

It aims to link 34 countries of the hemisphere in the world's largest free trade area with a market of some 800 million people.