PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, who plays host to a meeting of Commonwealth leader beginning here Friday, drew furious criticism Thursday when he dismissed human rights as domestic issues that have no place on the summit agenda.

At meetings ahead of the summit, human rights groups have been urging the leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to pressure Uganda to drop proposed legislation that calls for the execution of HIV-infected gays and lesbians and to sanction President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia for threatening to kill human-rights activists in his country.

"Individual countries have their own positions on these matters," Manning said, "but it doesn't form part of our agenda. It need not detain us."

The prime minister's statements were especially controversial because he will be Commonwealth chairman for the next two years.

Canadian HIV-AIDS activist Stephen Lewis, who was in Port of Spain earlier in the week to protest the Ugandan bill, called Manning's comments "a terrible error in judgment." But he said he expects other Commonwealth leaders, including Harper, to pressure President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to drop the bill.

"I fully expect this to be raised in the corridors outside the meeting," he said, "but Manning has his own sodomy laws in place so he won't countenance a discussion."

The proposed private member's bill, which opponents say has Museveni's tacit approval, proposes execution for gays and lesbians who have sex and makes it mandatory for all Ugandans, including family and friends, to report this sexual activity to authorities within 24 hours.

Lewis calls the bill an Orwellian proposal that will demonize homosexuality, intensify the stigma suffered by all AIDS sufferers in Africa and drive gay men and women underground.

"It will diminish dramatically the prospect of counselling and testing to establish HIV status," he added, "and to make it virtually impossible to reach homosexuals with the knowledge and education and condoms that prevent the spread of AIDS."

Gambia's Jammeh has pulled out of the Trinidad summit, apparently because of the controversy surrounding his recent threats to kill human rights activists.

Maja Daruwala, executive director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said Manning's dismissal of the Ugandan and Gambian complaints was misguided.

"It's a great pity that the leader of a country with a good record on human rights would miss the opportunity to show real leadership," she said. "As the new chairman of the Commonwealth, he has failed an early test. It is not only disappointing but against all Commonwealth principles. He is dismissing the cries of ordinary citizens who are asking their leaders for basic human rights."

Royal Commonwealth Society director Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, who released a critical report about the Commonwealth's effectiveness here on Thursday, said he was shocked to hear Manning's remarks.

"The Commonwealth is about shared values and principles everyone has signed on to," he said, "so if they can't be discussed here, then where? If a member state falls short you either help them or sanction them in some way. If the Commonwealth stops being about that, we've lost another leg of the Commonwealth stool."

Manning made his comments during a brief 20-minute news conference with Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, who interjected in a clear attempt to soften the prime minister's remarks.

"A lot of Commonwealth voices (on these issues) have been raised," said Sharma. "But one point is clear: Respect for human rights is a core value. We are in discussion with the Gambian side. As far as Uganda is concerned, this is . . . before their parliament and I'm hopeful that the various voices raised when this is debated will bring forward all the issues of discrimination and vulnerability. We must show our faith that this process will deliver the appropriate result."

Harper arrived here Thursday evening ahead of Friday's opening ceremony at Trinidad's new National Academy for the Performing Arts. He will have a short, private audience with Queen Elizabeth before heading into a special closed-door leaders' meeting on climate change.

Meanwhile the Harper government continues to anger climate change activists with Greenpeace and other members of a coalition now demanding Canada's suspension from the Commonwealth.

The group said Thursday that although Harper has now decided to attend a major climate change Copenhagen conference next month, "he has made it quite clear that Canada will not be a leader on climate change."