?Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning left for Mex­i­co yes­ter­day to at­tend a se­ries of meet­ings, in­clud­ing the first Cari­com-Mex­i­co Sum­mit. A re­lease is­sued by the of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter yes­ter­day said Man­ning was in­vit­ed to Mex­i­co by that coun­try's Pres­i­dent Fe­lipe Calderon Hin­josa. Man­ning will at­tend the 21st Meet­ing of the Rio Group and the Sec­ond Sum­mit of Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean on In­te­gra­tion. The re­lease fur­ther stat­ed that Mex­i­co was ex­pect­ed to en­gage Cari­com in dis­cus­sions on a va­ri­ety of is­sues. It said the Hait­ian Pres­i­dent Rene Preval will ad­dress the sum­mit on com­mon re­gion­al chal­lenges. Man­ning is be­ing ac­com­pa­nied by For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon and For­eign Ser­vice Of­fi­cer Su­san Gor­don, who is al­so Di­rec­tor of Cari­com and the Caribbean Af­fairs Di­vi­sion.

Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Dr Lenny Saith will act as Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing Man­ning's ab­sence from T&T. He is ex­pect­ed to re­turn home to­mor­row.