Former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, has appealed for support from Latin American leaders to help end the island's isolation when they meet President Obama at a regional summit later this month.

	Fidel Castro banking on Latin American help to end Cuba's isolation

Mr Castro said he'd seen a draft communique written for the next Summit of the Americas to be held in Trinidad and it made no mention of Cuba.
In a newspaper article, Mr Castro called on Latin American countries to put Cuba's isolation and the American economic embargo on the summit's agenda.

Cuba has not been invited to the Trinidad summit, but a number of Latin American leaders have visited Havana this year to show their solidarity and to increase pressure on Washington to lift the embargo.

Cautious welcome to trade package

One agriculture minister has cautiously welcomed a financial package to boost global trade.

On Thursday, leaders of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries announced a multi billion dollar package to stimulate world trade, at the end of their summit in London.

Some Caribbean industries are already feeling the pinch from the protectionist barriers to free trade, recently increased by rich nations.

But Jamaica's Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton says he would like the funds to be used for capacity building that allows for fair market access.

He also believes that the region has its own role to play in improving efficiency and product quality.

Caricom wants level playing field

Caricom has called on the international community to level the playing field in the offshore financial sector.

The call follows the publication of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's new list of countries who have not committed to international standards on exchanging tax information.

The Guyana-based secretariat says Caribbean countries were encouraged to diversify into services, not only by local advisors, but also by the international community, which suggested that services were the best alternative to real sector production.

Guyana supports West Papua

Amerindians in Guyana are supporting West Papua's calls for independence from Indonesia.

West Papua is half of the island of New Guinea, which is located north of Australia.

The pledge of support came Friday at the launch of the International Lawyers Federation for West Papua in Georgetown.

In 1969, Guyana was one of the few states in the UN General Assembly to vote for West Papuans being to exercise freely, their right to self-determination.

Indonesia took over West Papua, which is half of the island of New Guinea from Dutch colonial rule in 1963.

Since then international organisations have accused the Indonesian government of human rights abuse.

Bank outlines measures to tackle poverty

The World Bank has urged Caribbean countries to deepen regional cooperation and develop service industries.

	The World Bank advises a deepening of regional cooperation

In a report released Friday it said regional states need to do this to tackle poverty in the current tough economic conditions.

The bank's Caribbean director Yvonne Tsikata said that diversifying trade and becoming more competitive was crucial for the region.

The World Bank has also said that favourable treatment offered by European and North American markets to Caribbean states had not helped the region's overall trade performance.

Summit security discussed in Basseterre

Member countries of the Regional Security System (RSS) were discussing in St Kitts on Friday, how they can assist Trinidad and Tobago in its security arrangements for the Fifth Summit of the Americas being held in Port of Spain from April 17 to 19.

The RSS Council of Ministers says it's keen to help with the "significant responsibility" of ensuring the safety of the delegations.

US President Barack Obama is among heads of state and government due to participate in the summit.

Authorities in Port of Spain have said they are working with Interpol in a bid to keep career rioters and professional protesters away from the summit.

A police spokesman said they wanted the international police organisation to help the local national security services identify groups and individuals who enter countries during such events to protest and upset public order.