BASSETERRE - The CARICOM Single Market (CSM), flagship project of the region's economic integration movement, is finally sailing into a dozen ports of member states of the 33-year-old community.

It was set afloat last evening with the ceremonial signing by six countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) here in St Kitts and Nevis, six months after six other CARICOM members did so in Jamaica.

The signing to access the CSM, the first phase of the projected common regional economy by 2008, was the high point of a three-hour ceremonial opening that started four days of talks at the 27th regular annual Heads of Government Conference.

Outgoing CARICOM chairman, Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, noted that by itself, the CSM "is inadequate to stir the development that we need".

"Were it the full answer, we would have already been far ahead," he declared, adding that a "bugbear continues to be the free movement of labour that requires us in CARICOM to shed our mental shackles on this important matter . . . and show heart in the movement of human capital".

Host Prime Minister Denzil Douglas of St Kitts and Nevis, who will be chairman for the next six months, said while the six OECS countries had delayed signing on to the CSM until yesterday, it had nothing to do with their "unshakeable commitment" to CARICOM.

Given the factors of social and economic disparities among member states, he said, the OECS had to insist on arrangements in the creation of the proposed CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) and also in the application of their alien land holdings regime that would address their concerns.

Douglas said he was pleased sufficient adjustments were being made for operationalisation of the CDF to inspire confidence in the way forward.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, making her debut appearance at a CARICOM summit, said strenuous efforts had to be made, collectively, to help the peoples of the Caribbean overcome poverty and realise the full benefits of regional economic integration and functional co-operation.

President Rene Preval reiterated Haiti's commitment to CARICOM and expressed appreciation that CARICOM continued to champion the interest of Haiti's development at international fora while being willing to share its own limited technical resources.