GOVERNMENT is prepared to handle any situation which could arise out of escalating US, Venezuela tensions in the Caribbean.

Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal and Foreign and Caricom Affairs Ministry parliamentary secretary Nicholas Morris gave these assurances at the post-cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's on November 20.

Moonilal slammed former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley for claiming TT's offshore energy installations could be at risk if hostilities break out between the US and Venezuela. At a news conference at his home in Carenage, Rowley said this risk was real because of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's support of the US military deployment which began in the southern Caribbean in August and offering to allow US forces to use TT as a base of operations should Venezuela make any military incursion into Guyana.