28141: (news) Chamberlain: Rice urges Caribbean to restore links with Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By LIZ SIDOTI

   NASSAU, Bahamas, March 21 (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
sought Tuesday to encourage a Caribbean trade group to fully restore its
relationship with Haiti and help strengthen the troubled country.
   The top U.S. diplomat's brief Caribbean trip also was aimed at soothing
bitterness toward the United States in the region over the ouster of former
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Rice arrived in the Bahamas to meet with 14 foreign ministers and the
secretary general of the Caribbean Community and Common Market, a regional
trade bloc known as Caricom.
   Caribbean leaders have accused the United States of being an accomplice
in Aristide's 2004 ouster.
   To repair the strained relationship, Rice met with the Caribbean foreign
ministers twice last year -- in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and at the United
Nations. A trip to the region was the next step.
   "This is part of her effort to get this relationship back where it
should be," said Tom Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western
Hemisphere. "I think we're just about there."
   Caricom suspended Haiti's membership after Aristide's ouster. Last
month, the group said Haiti will be allowed to rejoin if recent
presidential and parliamentary elections are deemed free and fair.
   Shannon said Rice hoped to identify ways in which the United States and
Caricom can work together in Haiti to restore peace and rebuild democratic
institutions.