Should a war erupt in Iraq, Trinidad will not be able to honor requests from Caribbean and Latin American nations to hold oil prices at a "pre-Iraq war" level, Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning said.

Many nations have turned to oil-rich Trinidad & Tobago since an ongoing strike aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez crippled the country's oil industry and sparked gasoline shortages. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere second to Mexico.

"Our willingness to empathize ... is not supported by the realities of our own situation," Manning said at the two-day meetings start.

Trinidad's state-owned oil company, Petrotrin, produces about 150,000 barrels a day. It sells one-third to smaller Caribbean islands, another third to larger countries in the region, including Jamaica, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, and the remainder to the United States.

Though Trinidad is an oil-producing nation, it imports half its crude and will also be negatively affected by higher oil prices, Manning said.

Some Caribbean nations have already seen higher gasoline prices because of reduced exports from Venezuela.

Over the next two days, heads of government from the Caribbean Community, a 15-member regional body, plan to continue negotiations on oil prices, as well as creating a single market for the region, a stabilization fund for countries with economic troubles and a regional court.

Countries would contribute to the stabilization fund, but it is unclear how much they would contribute or how the money would be distributed. Leaders said details have yet to be finalized.

The new court that leaders want would replace the London Privy Council as the final court of appeal for some former British colonies.

"There must be no further delay before the Caribbean Court of Justice comes into existence," Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said Friday.

Some Caribbean governments have complained because the Privy Council has quashed some death sentences it has reviewed on appeal.

The Caribbean Court of Justice would be based in Trinidad, but judges could also travel to other member states to hear cases if a high number of appeals are filed from a specific country.

Some Caribbean leaders at the meeting urged the region to move quickly to create a single market, a proposal long in the works, and government heads met in a special session to discuss the possibility of creating a political "confederation" for the region.