PORT OF SPAIN, Sept 5: The 15-nation Caribbean Community will offer a regional visa to ease travel for cricket fans island-hopping for the 2007 World Cup Cricket, an official said on Monday.

Martin Joseph, the chairman of the national security and law enforcement council of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) trade group, said that visitors will only need one visa for the Caricom member states beginning Jan 15, and will only have to clear customs once while in the region.

The one-visa program will last through May 15.

The initiative was launched in part to facilitate fans arriving for the two-month-long Cricket World Cup, to be held across several countries in the region before the final takes place on April 28 in Barbados.

“These games continue to act as a catalyst for the early construction of the regional platform for law enforcement and security that is required for the long term as we accelerate towards a Caribbean single market and economy,” Joseph said at the World Cup Cricket security planning workshop in Trinidad.

Caricom countries plan to create a joint security and law enforcement team assisted by Interpol, the United States, Britain, Canada and other participating World Cup Cricket countries.

Jamaican Defence Force Colonel Anthony Anderson will head the security team.—AFP