Bermuda's application to join the 14-member Caribbean Community will be discussed at a meeting of organisation heads in Turks and Caicos that began yesterday.

But Finance Minister Eugene Cox said that even if Bermuda is given the green light to join the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) as an associate member, it would not join at this stage.

The two-day meeting between Belize Prime Minister Said Musa and Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham also will include Guyanese Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally.

Belize, Guyana and the Bahamas occupy the Prime Ministerial Bureau that runs the Caribbean Community's affairs between biannual summits.

Any decision by the three countries about Bermuda's application will have to then go to meeting of heads of Government on February 3 and 4 in Belize.

A CARICOM spokesman said of the two-day meeting: “This is just an initial exercise.”

Mr. Cox said he did not know the meeting was taking place and said Bermuda was still waiting for information requested months ago, although he declined to say what sort of information was being sought.

He said: “They haven't come back to us with the facts and figures we asked for. We have not got the information we required.

“We have been waiting for a considerably long time. I don't think there is any question of Bermuda joining at this point.”

He said any decision on joining Caricom would not be taken before it had been discussed in the House of Assembly.

Mr. Cox stressed that Bermuda was only looking at associate membership.

He said: “It means you don't have to take all the programme, you take what's in your best interests, but we're not in a position to make a decision.”

Today's meeting will focus on strengthening economic and political ties in the trade bloc as it prepares for a July summit in Guyana, said the Caribbean Community secretariat.

The leaders will examine progress in implementing a European Union-style single market and economy, efforts to set up the Caribbean Court of Justice to replace London's Privy Council and also will review applications from Bermuda and the Cayman Islands for associate membership in the organisation, according to the Associate Press.

The three main objectives of the Caribbean Community are foreign policy coordination among independent members; economic cooperation through the Single Market and Economy, the provision of common services and cooperation in areas such as health, education, communications and industrial relations.

The goal is to create a free-trade zone among the member states, allowing free movement of people, capital and services and harmonisation of taxation and other policies much like the European Union, but focused on economic integration, not a political union.

However Health Minister Nelson Bascome who has been given the task of explaining the benefits of joining Caricom to the public, said Bermuda would not be looking at joining the single market economy.

Associate members are not bound by protocols and treaties that the members draw up. Currently Bermuda has observer status.