St. John's, Antigua, 17^th June 1999—Antigua and Barbuda is to send a team made up of Government and opposition representatives to the United States and the United Kingdom to discuss how the country could implement a section of its money laundering legislation without violating its Constitution.

This proposal arose from the work of a Select Committee of the country's House of Representatives which met over the last few weeks and took evidence from bankers, lawyers and the public.

On 27^th May, the Government took a Bill to parliament to amend its Money Laundering legislation which was described as  "weak in Financial Advisories issued earlier this year by the Treasury Departments of the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom."

Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Lester Bird undertook immediately to address the concerns highlighted in the two Advisories. He established a new Board of the International Financial Services Authority removing members who had any association with licensed International Business Corporations and replaced them with persons experienced in the law, banking, law enforcement and business.

The Prime Minister also established a Special Committee, including British Financial Advisor in the Caribbean, Rodney Gallagher, to review the money laundering legislation and recommend amendments to the Government. Those amendments were set out in a Bill presented to Parliament on 27^th May.

At the request of members of the House, the Bill was sent to a Select Committee of the House for full and detailed discussion. The five-man Select Committee comprised three government and two opposition representatives including the Leader of the Opposition.

Today, at a meeting of the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Lester Bird revealed that the Select Committee