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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP)- Haiti was admitted as the 15th member of the Caribbean Community on Friday as the trading bloc wrapped up a summit that was marred early on by violence.

Haiti's move into the trade group was aimed at bolstering opportunities for regional manufacturers, but some critics questioned how much trade can be done with the poverty stricken Caribbean island.

Haiti, with a population of eight million, has an average per capita income of just $400 a year. That compares with members like the Bahamas and Barbados, where it's nearly $10,000. The community's 14 other member states have a population of 6.5 million.

Some officials tried to reassure others who feared giving membership to the Caribbean's most politically and economically troubled nation.

St. Lucian Foreign Minister Julian Hunte, the community's point man on Haiti, said Haiti's membership was long overdue but cautioned the country that suffered nearly 200 years of dictatorship has a long way to go since democracy and the rule of law have never been entrenched.

``I have been saying all along that people should understand that Haiti has 8 million people and their buying power would be enormous both now and in the future. We should take advantage of this,'' Secretary-General Edwin Carrington told The Associated Press this week.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government would need help dealing with precarious national security and in collecting thousands of illegal weapons in the hands of government and opposition partisans, he said.

As the three-day summit was opening Wednesday, violence broke out in Georgetown during a confrontation between police and opposition protesters. Police fired on a group that broke away from a march involving thousands and forced open a gate to enter the yard of the president's office.

Two died and at least 12 were treated for gunshot wounds, hospital officials said. No violence was reported Thursday or Friday.

Earlier Friday, 13 presidents and prime ministers at the summit asked the region's development bank to raise funds to help finance a new regional high court to replace Britain's Privy Council. The court is expected to open next year.

The Privy Council has long been the court of last resort for several former British Caribbean islands. But some Caribbean governments have complained that the council has tried to cripple their efforts to enforce the death penalty, which is illegal in Britain.