PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — The financial burden from soaring rates of diabetes and other chronic non-communicable diseases is threatening economies across the Caribbean, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Saturday.

Manning, opening a Caribbean Community health summit in Port-of-Spain, noted that the percentage of diabetic people ranges from 12 to 20 percent in Caribbean nations.

"In our region, five times as many people die from non-communicable diseases as from all the other illnesses combined," Manning said, urging regional solutions to the problem.

Manning said the costs of diabetes and high blood pressure could be as high as US$419 in Jamaica and US$496 million in Trinidad and Tobago.

Some at the summit, which drew political leaders and medical specialists from throughout the Caribbean and North America, blamed the high rates of disease on bad diets and other lifestyle factors.

Prime Minister Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis suggested a regional ban on trans fats in food. "The health of the region — and thus its true wealth — is seriously threatened," he said in a statement.

Medical experts say trans fats, which are listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, can raise bad cholesterol and lower healthy cholesterol, which can eventually lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.