NASSAU, The Bahamas:

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have dismissed suggestions that they are losing the battle on crime, saying they remained confident they could meet their own security needs.

"The region is not losing the war on crime, neither can the region afford to lose the war on crime," Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning told journalists at a press conference here Saturday.

"What we are doing is pausing and taking a second look at it to see where there might have been initiatives taken that we didn't take or what other ideas we may now have as we seek to take the war on crime to a new level," he said.

Manning, who has invited his CARICOM colleagues to Port-of-Spain in early April for a special summit on crime and security, said, "We are going to examine what is taking place in the Caribbean territories and see what new initiatives need to be put in place."