been commissioned to carry out a probe into pollution on the old US bases in Bermuda.

British company Environmental Resources Management (ERM) started work on the former US Naval Air Station in St. George's and the US Naval Annex in Southampton on Wednesday.

Deputy Governor Tim Gurney said: "ERM will study the earlier reports commissioned on the environmental situation on the former US bases and update them as necessary.

"They will also review studies undertaken by the US military. An independent report will then be presented to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for further discussion with the US authorities.'' He added: "ERM recently completed the remedial works at the former HMS Malabar site in Dockyard and therefore has a good understanding of the potential environmental conseqences of naval base activities on Bermuda.'' UK Foreign Office junior Minister Baroness Patricia Scotland announced last month that the firm, which completed the million dollar-plus clean up of caves near Dockyard last year, would be hired again in a bid to get the Americans to stump up the estimated $60 million needed for a clean-up.

Among the damage left behind when the US quit Bermuda in 1995 were tons of oil in caves under the old Annex, earmarked for a major tourism development, tons of asbestos from old buildings, as well as poisonous heavy metals and other pollutants at the Air Station.

The US has insisted it will only pay for clean-ups where risk to health is "imminent.'' The US Government insisted that was not the case in Bermuda -- and also dismissed reports prepared by independent experts for the Island's Government which said the risk to health was serious.

The American Government, however, has compensated Canada for mess left behind on Cold War bases there to the tune of $100 million -- under agreements similar to the bases deal struck in 1941 for the Bermuda bases.

But the US covered itself by making clear the payment was a one-off and was not an admission of liability.

Britain has promised to help Bermuda win the battle for compensation.