Congress of the People (COP) leader Prakash Ramadhar has descrided as "interesting" the responses to allegations by National Security Minister Jack Warner of an alleged meeting by certain politicians to destablise the country.

Ramadhar, in a release yesterday said: "The statements made on March 8 by the Minister of National Security in Parliament suggesting that persons were meeting to conspire to destabilise Trinidad and Tobago has met with some interesting responses.

"The Congress of the People has unreservedly refuted that it or any of its members was involved in any such meeting or conspiracy and demanded an apology from the Minister who made the statement under cloak of Parliamentary privilege."

"Mr Vernon De Lima's request to have his right of reply invoked and his response read into the Hansard record of Parliament has been refused," Ramadhar noted yesterday.

He also accused the PNM of responding with "vacillation", pointing out the PNM's political leader speaking in St James at a public meeting which gave the impression that the meetings referred to by the National Security Minister in his statement were possibly in response to PNM members to form party groups.

"Today, the same PNM in a statement from its general secretary says 'I can state categorically no meeting of the PNM or gathering of officers took place in the locations…and included any of the persons mentioned….'."

Ramadhar said the PNM "must come clean on the issue", adding that the party has "failed to be open and completely transparent on issues of allegations of involvement in any acts of destabilisation including those of its leaders' possible prior knowledge of the 1990 coup attempt".