ROSEAU, March 18 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) - Jamaica will assume in July the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chairmanship replacing Haiti that was ravaged last Jan by a devastating 7.2 earthquake.

Haitian President Rene Preval explained at the 21st Inter-Sessional Summit the impossibility to cover the last six months in office for the disaster left 222,750 dead, 869 missing and 1.3 million homeless.

Preval will be replaced at the Conference of Heads of Governments under incumbent Dominican Premier Roosevelt Skerrit, outgoing Edwin Carrington as secretary general and Guyana President Baharrat Jagdeo as chairman.

Under the leadership of the 1973 founded CARICOM, its 15 full members, five associates and seven observers coordinate exchange in all avenues of a country's life. -- NNN-PRENSA LATINA