STEVEN Brault, head of the American Citizen Services at the US Embassy in Kingston yesterday sought to reassure the Montego Bay business community that visa cancellations were not in any way politically motivated.

Responding to questions from patrons of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry's quarterly luncheon, Brault stressed that while his protocol was not to speak in specifics, he could say with conviction that there was no political link in the cancellation by his embassy of any US visa held by any Jamaican.

"Absolutely no political considerations are allowed to enter visa adjudications. Each case is decided purely on the merits of the individual application," he told the Observer at the function.

Speculation has been rife in recent weeks that the embassy's cancellation of the visas a number of entertainers and a businessman is somehow linked to the government's diplomatic row with the US over Christopher 'Dudus Coke, the strongman of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's West Kingston constituency.

The US wants Coke to answer charges of drug and gun-running in that country, however, the Government has been refusing since last year to sign the request.