cutbacks forced by the end of the company's monopoly on overseas telephone calls, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Around 25 workers throughout the workforce of 114 are set to go amid a shrinking market share since TeleBermuda International opened up its lines.

One employee said yesterday: "Morale is at about at rock bottom at the moment.

"You come in in the morning and you don't know whether you're going to have a job at the end of the day.'' But it is understood management at the firm are considering early retirement and voluntary redundancy packages in a bid to ease the blow.

The news came as a truce in the war of words between Government and C&W was declared.

For the two -- at loggerheads over competition in the industry -- are to call a halt to rival advertising campaigns designed to rubbish opposing claims over opening up the overseas telephone market to competition.

Telecommunications Minister E.T. (Bob) Richards confirmed that a top C&W executive from overseas met him yesterday in a bid to break the deadlock.

And he said the thaw in relations was a good sign for the future.

Sen. Richards said: "We will be holding further meetings to try and resolve our differences.'' He added: "The Government and the company met quite a bit last year and quite a bit of progress was made, but that stopped.

"What we're trying to do is return it to where we stopped so we can move forward.'' And Sen. Richards said: "I believe we can work these things out -- but we can't make progress while we're blasting at each other all over the media.'' The move came just a day after a tough-talking speech by Sen. Richards warned Government was set to play hardball over an aggressive series of ads pushing C&W's position.

The firm's hard-hitting adverts claimed Government had tied its hands by not allowing it to cut rates and compete with newcomer TeleBermuda.

And the firm has signalled it will sue Government for $100 million over its lost monopoly -- a claim Government has pledged to fight.

Government also insisted C&W were to blame for not providing the Telecommunications Commission with the legally-required financial information to back its rates cut bid.

Yesterday, Government hit back with a striking ad in The Royal Gazette headed "Monopoly -- Dead End Road,'' And the advert added: "Sorry, Cable and Wireless, but it was time pave another road to the future.'' A spokesman for C&W refused to discuss the scale of job losses at the under-pressure firm.

But he confirmed that a meeting had been held with Sen. Richards and more were pencilled in for the future.

He added: "We have agreed to withdraw our advertising in its present form. We have also agreed to hold further meetings.''