(AFX) - BERMUDA: British Caribbean territory sees 23 percent increase in tourist arrivals in 2006

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The number of tourists vacationing in Bermuda in 2006 increased 23 percent from the previous year, the prime minister has said.

Some 641,717 tourists visited the prosperous mid-Atlantic British territory in 2006, up from 521,024 in 2005, according to Premier Ewart Brown.

"All arrows were pointing in the right direction as air, cruise and yacht arrivals were all up showing double-digit percentage point increases," said Brown, who is also the tourism minister.

Air arrivals reached their highest level in the last six years with a nearly 11 percent increase over 2005. Tourists also spent US$426.9 million (euro327.8 million), said Brown, who said the increase was due to measures the government took to reverse a trend of sustained decline.

In 2005, the number of air arrivals dropped, which officials blamed on high fares and fears about storms. Critics said then that tourism was on the decline because the government had an inconsistent marketing plan.

The economy of Bermuda, located 640 miles (1,030 kilometers) east of the U.S. coast, is based on the financial service and tourism industries.

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Bankrupt US Caribbean territory to sell some TV holdings

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) -- A bankrupt U.S. Virgin Islands telecommunications company will sell its two French Caribbean cable television companies in an effort to repay creditors, an official has said.

Innovative Communications Corp., the largest telecom company in the territory of 110,000 people, plans to sell Martinique TV Cable and Guadeloupe-based World Satellite Group for US$70 million (euro54 million), said Jeffrey Prosser, the companies' owner.

Prosser and two of his companies -- Innovative Communications Corporation LLC and Emerging Communications -- filed for bankruptcy on July 31, after defaulting on loans to creditors, including Herndon, Va.-based Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative, or RTFC.

The buyer of the French Caribbean cable companies was a privately held Martinique-based company, Prosser said, but declined to give its name. The deal will be final by Feb. 25 and will close by March 25. The sale requires approval from French regulatory agencies and RTFC, Prosser said.

The two companies collectively serve nearly 50,000 customers in the French Caribbean islands, according to Innovative's Web site.

Innovative also plans to sell rural France-based Valvision, a cable TV company with 16,500 subscribers. Prosser said he expects to get about US$25 million (euro19.3 million) for the company.

JAMAICA: Island uses Venezuelan oil dollars to help government sugar company

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- The Jamaican government has used money earned from its oil deal with Venezuela to help its struggling state-owned sugar company, the agriculture minister has said.

Some US$44 million (euro34 million) has been given to the Sugar Company of Jamaica to pay suppliers and creditors, Roger Clarke said Thursday. A portion of the money was also used to refurbish factories for the 2007 sugar crop, he said.

"The ministry of finance has decided to take on the debt and relieve the Sugar Company of Jamaica of that burden," Clarke said.

The company consists of six farms that produce 65 percent of the Caribbean country's sugar export. It was put up for divestment by the government two years ago after accumulating millions of dollars (euros) in debt, standing at US$180.5 million (euro139 million), Clarke said.

Jamaica, along with 13 other Caribbean countries, signed a 2005 oil deal with Venezuela known as Petrocaribe. Under the agreement, the countries pay market price for Venezuelan fuel but are only required to hand over part of the cost and can finance the rest over 25 years at low interest.

Five companies are in the running to purchase the island's sugar company, including the private-owned local companies Wray and Nephew and Gibson Energy Ltd., Coimex from Brazil, Angostura from Trinidad and Dhampur from India.

MARTINIQUE: Top island official calls for Club Med workers, management to end strike

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) -- The top official in the French Caribbean island of Martinique has called on Club Med resort workers and management to settle a two-week strike, saying it threatens to hurt the local tourism industry.

The strike at Buccaneer's Creek in Sainte-Anne began Jan. 24 because of a dispute over how to divide the 35-hour work week mandated by French law. The 525 people staying at Club Med when the strike began have left, and the resort currently has no guests.

"The departure of North American tourists is a real handicap for professionals in the sector who have put everything in place to bring back this clientele," Yves Dassonville, prefect of the Martinique region, said in a statement late Tuesday. "It is consequently my duty to call the parties to conclude as quickly as possible an agreement to save what can be saved."

In the last decade, Martinique has struggled to lure tourists, competing with other destinations in the Caribbean such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Many tourists also stopped visiting the island because of hotel industry strikes.

The company that operates the resort and employs the striking workers -- Societe Martiniquaise de Villages de Vacances -- is handling the negotiations, which have made little progress.

DOMINICA: Chinese delegation visits tiny Caribbean nation to survey aid program

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) -- Chinese aid officials have agreed to help speed up construction of a highway linking Dominica's capital of Roseau with its second biggest city of Portsmouth.

Construction of the road is part of a deal signed between the Asian economic superpower and the tiny Caribbean island in 2004, when Dominica broke off ties with Taiwan in favor of its rival. The Asian rivals for decades have used dollar diplomacy to win over small Caribbean nations where development projects go a long way.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said Chinese engineers will arrive in the island at the end of this month to begin preliminary work on the highway project.

Dominica, a former British colony, is one of the poorest countries in the region. It cut ties with Taiwan in March 2004 in exchange for a six-year, EC$700 million (US$262 million; euro202.5 million) Chinese aid program.

The six-member Chinese delegation will also visit a secondary school and a hospital to discuss upgrades agreed to during their three-day visit, officials said. Dominica is a mountainous island with an economy dependent on agriculture and a small tourism sector.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Caribbean nation wants dialogue with plaintiffs in electricity suit

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- The Dominican Republic is open to dialogue with foreign energy investors suing the Caribbean country for hundreds of millions of dollars (euros), a top electricity official has said.

Government and electricity sector officials met for about three hours Wednesday to discuss the US$680 million (euro520 million) lawsuit brought by Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc. and France's Societe Generale, but said they had not yet decided on a course of action.

"We are completely open to conversation, to dialogue. This is a government respectful of foreign investment," Rhadames Segura, a Cabinet secretary and vice president of the state energy company, told reporters.

The California-based group owns half the company that distributes electricity to six southeastern provinces and much of the capital of Santo Domingo. Societe Generale is its parent company.

The suit alleges the Dominican government and state-run electricity corporation, which owns the other half of the distribution company, violated an energy deal by failing to crack down on rampant electricity theft, distributing too much power and not collecting enough money from customers.

The suit was filed with the Vienna-based United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and in the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.