GEORGETOWN (IPS)�Not having had any clues from his hard fought campaign about how he will interact with the region, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders say they will just have to divine the intentions of U.S. president-elect George W. Bush.

Most governments and regional diplomats had been hoping that Vice-President Al Gore would have succeeded Bill Clinton in the White House despite the harshness with which the region was treated by that administration over its eight-year lifespan.

It is a case of the devil you know being better than the devil you don�t know, observers note. But regional governments say they will attempt to rectify this unfamiliarity by trying to establish contact very early with the Bush government, much as they did with Clinton when he became U.S. president in 1992.

That early effort to establish a relationship led to an August 1993 White House mini-summit with the leaders of Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The timely contact and summit led to a formal relationship between Washington and the region that has lasted throughout the eight years of the Clinton administration.

The two sides met at the highest levels at the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami and again when Clinton traveled to Barbados for a one-day summit in 1997.

Officials call these three meetings unprecedented and groundbreaking. " Relations between the Caribbean and the U.S. have never been stronger,�� declared Byron Blake, assistant secretary-general of CARICOM and regional trade chief.

The good times reached a peak when Madeleine Albright succeeded Warren Christopher as secretary of state after the 1996 elections.

Under Albright, the United States and the Caribbean were able to create a mechanism allowing regional foreign ministers and the Secretary of State to meet twice yearly, once in the Caribbean. The second opportunity would come when everyone attended the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York.

" That formal structure allowed us to talk about a lot of things and to establish real communication, but the problem usually comes in terms of slow implementation on the part of the U.S.,�� says Mr. Blake. " Still we had a formal structure with which to meet and we hope it will continue under the new administration.��

One early sign that this could occur comes through the nomination of retired U.S. army chief General Colin Powell, born to Jamaican immigrant parents, for the post of Secretary of State. He has visited the Caribbean in the past and has stated his commitment to helping the U.S. better understand Caribbean needs.

But whether he will continue with the twice-yearly meetings is another matter, officials say, acknowledging at the same time that similar concerns would have been the case as well if Vice-President Gore had won the elections.

Looking back on the eight years, Mr. Blake and other officials describe the period as interesting and sometimes very difficult. Washington fought the European Union to dismantle a preferential system under which Caribbean bananas�a lifeline for many of the smaller islands�entered the EU under special terms not afforded .US.-owned Latin American producers. The war between the two, with the Caribbean in the middle, led to the United States slapping an annual 191 million-dollar sanction on EU exports.

Also, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) applied pressure on Caribbean airport authorities by arbitrarily downgrading the classification of their aerodromes and restricting Caribbean aircraft from flying to the United States.

Many regional officials, including Mr. Blake, said that it was clear the United States was using that lever selectively and it was no co-incidence that Jamaica and Trinidad were handed poor ratings after their national carriers bought or leased European-made aircraft.

Washington also forced regional governments to sign on to the Shiprider Agreement, a deal that gives U.S. narcotics agents the power to chase and intercept suspected drug aircraft or ships deep into Caribbean airspace or territorial waters once a regional enforcement officer was present.

But U.S. negotiators squeezed out important exceptions to the rule, winning the right to chase suspected traffickers without a local presence in emergency situations.