A new drug-busting bill aims to give ships and planes the right to pursue drug runners across jurisdictional boundaries.

Attorney General Lois Browne Evans said: "If we're going to get these drug runners, we have all got to cooperate with each other.

"And we have to do our bit too, which is give people the permission if someone is escaping into our waters, to follow them.'' Mrs. Browne Evans said Britain had already signed a similar agreement and asked its colonies to come on board as well.

She added most of the Caribbean Overseas Territories had already changed their laws -- but Bermuda got a bit behind because of last year's General Election.

And Mrs. Browne Evans said: "It's international cooperation under the Vienna Convention -- in the spirit of what's going on internationally, there will be a lot of these cooperation bills coming down.'' The proposed law allows any state signed to the Convention to exercise pursuit powers when authorised by a Bermuda officer carried on board.

But it also allows vessels from other countries without Bermudians on board to chase ships into Island waters in special circumstances "for the purpose of detecting and taking appropriate action in respect of drug offences''.

The bill, however, also adds that overseas "enforcement vessels'' can only exercise the right to invade Bermuda waters if a home-based vessel is not "immediately available''.