Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he will be urgently seeking a resumption of talks with the People's National Party (PNP) to discuss Jamaica's crime problem.

"It would be useful and I've spoken to Mr (Karl) Samuda about anxiously resuming the Vale Royal talks," Golding told The Gleaner yesterday after addressing Jamaica Labour Party supporters at its Area Council One meeting at the Pembroke Hall Community Centre in St Andrew.

The Vale Royal talks, initiated by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, were last held in January.

Heavy criticism

Golding's comments follow heavy criticism from the Opposition PNP, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and human rights groups about his administration's slow response to the recent wave of murders.

On Thursday, PSOJ President Christopher Zacca demanded that the Government share with the country its plan to curb the rise in homicides.

The previous day, Golding, during his monthly call-in programme 'Jamaica House Live', said it was not the remit of the Government to draft such a plan.

Yesterday, the prime minister said his comments were misunderstood. He stressed that it was the job of any government to protect its people.

"The Government has a respon-sibility to secure the nation, that is part of what we were voted in to do and that's a responsibility we can't divest to anybody," he said.

Fine-tuning strategies

He said he has met with the Police High Command and a crime-fighting strategy has been developed but aspects of it require funding and legislation before implementation.

Golding declined to expound on these strategies, but said he would instruct Finance Minister Audley Shaw and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne to provide funding and to prepare a bill for introduction to Parliament.

Police data reveal that more than 180 persons were murdered in Jamaica last month. More than 700 homicides have been recorded in the country this year.