Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with illegally marketing pharmaceuticals which have not been approved in America.

The FDA wrote to De la Web Multimedia Exposicion, whose address was given as Hamilton, Bermuda, warning it that the drugs have not been approved for use in the US.

However, Registrar of Companies Stephen Lowe said yesterday no company of that name was registered in Bermuda.

He said a company called Multimedia Holdings Ltd. was registered on the Island but was struck off in 1997.

The FDA has written to the organisers of four websites warning them not to try to import their products to the US.

The FDA say De la Web Multimedia Exposicion was selling Valium, OxyContin, Vicodin, MS-Contin and "numerous other medicines''.

In the letter, the FDA state: "Many prescription drugs available from foreign sources are either products for which there is no US approved counterpart or foreign versions of FDA-approved drugs. In either case, these products are not approved for use in the US, and therefore, it is illegal for a foreign source to ship these products into the US.

"We are advising the regulatory drug officials in the countries from which you operate of these potential violations.

"In addition, we are advising the US Customs Service through an import alert that all shipments offered for importation to the US as a result of your activities may be detained and subject to refusal of entry.'' The other web sites warned were Bedessee Sporting Goods, Ontario, Canada, Magic of Nature in Nes-Tziona, and Leith Place of Tokoroa, New Zealand.