Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said he will return to the Federation "within a day or two" from a trip to Libya last Saturday.

In a nationally broadcasted telephone interview with Erasmus Williams, PM Douglas said he accepted a personal invitation from president Muammar al-Gaddafi to attend the 14th summit African Union in Ethiopia which commenced 31 Jan., and finished on Tuesday and to have a bilateral meeting with the Libyan government.

He said the meeting – which was also attended by delegates of the Eastern Caribbean – was exceptionally important because "apart from the fact that we have demonstrated a commitment in support of the African Caribbean we were able to put forward a very strong case for assistance to our brothers and sisters in Haiti who as we know were devastated recently by a very terrible earthquake."

PM Douglas said following the summit they travelled to the Libyan capital and they had a very important bilateral meeting with the prime minister and other members of the Libyan government. "We discussed a number of initiatives which we first opened in July last year when I attended the summit of the union for the first time."

He said the three important matters up for discussion were the decision of the Libyan government in concurrence with the Caribbean member states to have a diplomatic presence in the Eastern Caribbean states by way of establishing the peoples bureau, which is equivalent to a Libyan embassy in the Eastern Caribbean.

Secondly, he said the matter of an investment bank, which was to be located in the Eastern Caribbean, for which investment funds were to flow for financing important investments would be made by the Libyan government projects in the Eastern Caribbean was also discussed.

PM Douglas said the final matter was the establishment of a holding company through which important investments would be made by the Libyan government as they proceed to expand and diversify their economy thus getting engaged in profitable projects of various kinds in the Caribbean.

Douglas’ update comes on the heels of growing concerns over his whereabouts and the purpose of his travel and also because he did not appoint a deputy nor swear in Cabinet ministers. Former parliamentarian, Dwyer Astaphan, said in a letter, "the question, therefore, is: can the prime minister leave the Federation at this time and under the present circumstances without the provisions of Section 55 being breached?

"I doubt it, but to be sure, it would be good to hear from the constitutional experts. This is important, not only as a one-off event, but because it is part of a pattern. Over the past fourteen and a half years, even when there was a deputy prime minister in place, there were times when prime minister travelled overseas in disregard of Section 55," Astaphan wrote.

Astphan outlined that Section 55 of the Constitution reads whenever the prime minister is absent from the Federation, or by reason of illness is unable to perform his constitutional functions, the governor-general, either acting upon the advice of the prime minister, or if in his own deliberate judgment he considers it impracticable to obtain such advice, may authorise some other minister to perform those functions.