Cuba hosts Caribbean summit on financial crisis

CUBA: Cuba has no plans to join the Caribbean Community regional trade bloc, but will host its leaders at a summit next week nonetheless.

Leaders from all 15 of the group's member states will discuss how to combat high food and energy costs, the global financial crisis and global warming at the meeting, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez said Tuesday.

At a July summit, members established a $60 million fund to market Caribbean tourism.

Cuba maintains strong relations with members of the bloc, which is known as Caricom, despite U.S. efforts to pressure the small nations to isolate Havana, Gonzalez said.

Still, the communist-led island hasn't considered joining the group, he added.

"The relationship between Cuba and the Caribbean goes beyond matters of ideology," he said.

Ties between Caricom and Cuba stem in part from its small members' support for Fidel Castro's decades-long defiance of the U.S., and from gratitude for medical and education aid the island has given despite its own financial struggles.

Cuban doctors have performed more than 17 million checkups and 289,000 surgeries in Caricom member countries, Gonzalez said.

HAVANA, Wednesday, AP