MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

London Territories talks open on Monday.

These are mostly structured towards Caribbean policy. This is the first time that Governors have been invited to the OTCC.

Finance Centre issues are expected to be discussed as are maritime safety and security issues and the environment.

Meanwhile in its strategy document launched this week the Foreign Office has highlighted the issues of security and good governance of the UK's Overseas Territories. The document states that this is a responsibility of the Government as a whole, "coordinated by the FCO".

"As well as meeting our international legal obligations, our aim will be to promote their quality of life and support their long-term development. We shall expect the Territories to observe high standards of probity, law and order and good government, and to observe international commitments to which they are bound by virtue of their relationship with the UK," says the paper adding that the UK policy on the Overseas Territories was set out in a Government White Paper in 1999 - Partnership for Progress and Prosperity.

Specific aims detailed by the FCO are to.:

- improve the governance, environment and security of the Overseas Territories and encourage more diversified economic development - maintain a proper balance between rights and responsibilities in the constitutional relationships between the UK and the Overseas Territories. - manage the impact of new international obligations affecting the Overseas Territories. - minimise the vulnerability of small island Territories to economic changes, international crime, natural disasters or other developments. - co-operate effectively with other Government Departments across this agenda.

The Overseas Territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cyprus Sovereign Base Areas, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena and Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands