Antigua is investigating the repayment of a Japanese loan that was used to build a US$33-million desalination and power plant.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer says a commission will probe whether officials misappropriated money that was earmarked to repay nearly US$30 million to Tokyo-based IHI Corp.

The loan was approved under the island's previous administration.

Spencer made the announcement Friday.

Antigua also recently asked a regional financial institution for help in investigating its Financial Services Regulatory Commission. Former director Leroy King is accused of involvement in an alleged US$7-billion Ponzi scheme with Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford.

Financial commission seeks help

Antigua's troubled financial regulatory commission is seeking assistance from a regional agency that targets and helps prevent money laundering.

United States authorities say Leroy King accepted more than $100,000 in bribes to ignore irregularities. He is under house arrest awaiting extradition to the US.

The Financial Services Regulatory Commission issued a statement about the investigation on Thursday.

Guyana opens new eye centre

Guyana has cut the ribbon on a US$700,000 ophthalmology centre where patients who previously would have been flown to Cuba for free eye surgery can seek treatment.

President Bharrat Jagdeo says the centre is one of several institu-tions built with help from Cuba.

Jagdeo said Saturday that Cuban doctors will staff the facility initially and expect to perform up to 10,000 surgeries a year.

Guyanese medical students studying in Cuba would eventually replace them. The first operations are to be performed on Tuesday.

- AP stories