NEW YORK, USA The US State Department yesterday greeted as "an important first step" Prime Minister Bruce Golding's decision to authorise the attorney general to get the extradition process underway for accused Tivoli Gardens drug and arms trafficker Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

"The evidence against Mr Coke was gathered after a lengthy and credible series of investigations and so this is an important first step in resolving this protracted dispute," State Department spokesman Noel Clay told the Observer.

Clay was asked for his comments after Golding announced Monday night he would give the all-clear to Dorothy Lightbourne, the justice minister and attorney general, to hand the extradition request over to the local courts.

Clay insisted that the US request for Coke had "met all the requirements of Jamaican laws and the Extradition Treaty to which both Jamaica and the United States are signatories".

Since August last year when it first asked that Coke be handed over, the US had maintained that the Jamaican Government should put the matter before the local courts, but Golding had refused, on grounds that the evidence against Coke was illegally obtained and had breached Jamaican laws.

The about-turn by Golding followed mounting pressure for his resignation as prime minister after he admitted to the nation last week that he had approved the ruling Jamaica Labour Party's hiring of US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby US authorities against the extradition matter.

Prior to the prime minister's announcement Monday, reports were circulating here that the US was considering sanctions to force Jamaica's hand on the matter.

But the State Department's Clay told the Observer that he had no information to that effect, stressing that both countries enjoyed an excellent relationship, had successfully worked on extradition and other law enforcement matters and that "the US looks forward to a continuation of that co-operation".

But the US has still not yet dispatched an ambassador to Kingston, almost 17 months since the last ambassador ended her tour of duty. Jamaica, however, last Saturday sent off ambassador-designate to Washington, Audrey Marks to replace Ambassador Anthony Johnson.

Marks apparently had to swing into action immediately, as the Jamaican Government sent word of its latest decision to the White House. Highly placed Observer sources in Kingston said the two sides began talking and that the stalemate appeared to be broken.