CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC):

The ruling United Workers Party (UWP) is beginning the task of identifying a new leader in the event that ailing Prime Minister Sir John Compton does not return to the helm of government, acting Prime Minister Stephenson King has revealed.

King told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that while it was hoped that Sir John, who remained hospitalised in New York, would return to lead the five-month old administration, a succession plan had to be worked out in the event that the 82-year-old leader could not continue as prime minister.

"We had not anticipated such a situation. It is indeed a most challenging situation in that ever since the establishment of the UWP, we never had such a situation of having to begin to think of the possibility of a replacement; not that we never anticipated it, but we thought Sir John would have given the party and the country a good three, four years and the party would have prepared itself for new leadership.

"It now appears that if all doesn't go well that we may have to be faced with the task of identifying new leadership and the task of renewing the party," he added, noting that the path forward would become clearer once Sir John was in a position to indicate his future direction to the party.