slated to be held in Bermuda later this year.

The prestigious World Conference of Mayors 1988 Convention is to be held in Bermuda between November 15 and 20.

But a press conference on the event, which is understood to have met on-Island resistance, has been postponed again.

It was due to be held yesterday after being cancelled once before.

The conference is now on hold until WCOM organisers and Tourism Department representatives hammer out an agreement on sponsorship issues.

The department has been pencilled in as a $100,000 title sponsor of the event but the terms and conditions of this agreement are presently under negotiation. The conference was earlier cancelled out of respect for WCOM organiser Bonnie Marshall whose three-month-old grandson Tyrian Lee Alexander Marshall passed away.

Ms Marshall, the president of the African American Global Trade and Tourism Council, remained off the Island yesterday.

The press conference was also set to feature some of the Mayors involved in the event and was advertised as a means to clear up local suspicions surrounding it.

The Royal Gazette understands that Ms Marshall's requests for sponsorship and free site visits to Island accommodations, restaurants and attractions has provoked concern amongst the community and the Department of Tourism as she is an unknown quantity. She has not had the chance to explain her role in the event and the press conference was to allow her to do that.