Five Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders will meet in Trinidad tomorrow to discuss matters relevant to the regional integration movement, according to an official statement issued there yesterday. The statement said that Prime Minister Patrick Manning will host Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, the newly elected Grenadian Prime Minister Tillman Thomas as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and St Lucia's Prime Minister Stephenson King. The meeting will also be attended by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Barbados, Chris Sinckler. Thomas, who was elected on July 8, will be making his first official visit to Port of Spain. But his two-day visit, which begins today, has been clouded in controversy following public criticism over the alleged extravagance of the visit. The T&T government has taken out full-page advertisements regarding the trip and is sending a private jet for Thomas and his delegation. Information Minister Neil Parsanlal has defended the advertisements saying "it was designed to put information in the public domain that no other organisation in the country, not least of all the media, was prepared to put". The ruling People's National Movement (PNM) has also called on the Trinidad Express newspaper to apologise to Manning after the paper ran a front-page story headlined 'Mr Show Off'. "The PNM notes with utter amazement, the attack on the government's right and responsibility for the provision of information on diplomatic initiatives and other matters of national importance by the front-page story in the Sunday Express... which deemed information provided on a neighbouring Caricom partner a 'waste of public funds'," "The PNM calls on the Express to apologise for its unfair, unbalanced and scurrilous attack on its leader," the party said, noting that the Manning administration had been at the forefront of seeking to deepen the regional integration movement. But Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has accused Prime Minister Manning of spending tax payers' money to resolve "the bad blood" between the two leaders following remarks Manning had made recently in the United States regarding a coup to topple the then government of former Grenadian PM Dr Keith Mitchell. "You don't use the people's money to solve your problems. Meet him privately and apologise. The PM (Thomas) is not going to be fooled," Panday said, adding that he agreed with criticism that the newspaper promotion was a waste of funds. "There is no reason for it; the Grenadian PM certainly doesn't expect it." Thomas told the media that he would not engage in "domestic politics" and is questioning the controversy over his visit. "I don't know what all this controversy is about," he said, adding "that is domestic politics. I am not involved in the domestic politics of Trinidad and Tobago." Thomas said the visit would be beneficial to Grenada. "For instance, in the agro-processing industry, the energy sector, we believe we could benefit from Trinidad and Tobago. We want to have friendly relations with Trinidad and Tobago," he added. He said discussions on the Manning initiative for a closer political union involving St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago would take place during the meeting to be attended by the other leaders from St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia. "We're looking at the possibility of some sort of political (grouping) to strengthen the political union of the region. We have to look at the way the world is going (and) we need to strengthen the region as a block," Thomas added. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com