What does tiny Bermuda have in common with the United States, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland? It is considered one of the least at risk countries in the world for potential Y2K disasters.

International Monitoring, a technology consulting group based in Britain, has ranked nations around the world according to their preparedness for Y2K.

The firm sought third-party verification of each government's reports on cleansing computers and embedded circuits of the millennium bug, and it based its ratings on the risk of disruptions in a given country's power, telecoms, finance and transportation infrastructures.

According to an Associated Press report, IM predicts 10 percent of Y2K failures will occur on January 1, with most of the rest occurring in the days and weeks that follow.

Nick Gogerty, an IM senior analyst, thinks the majority of bug-related troubles won't be directly related to systems failures but rather follow-up events.

"Most large system errors, and we've done research on this, aren't purely technical in nature,'' he says. "They involve two or three coincidental errors. So it's technology failing followed on by human error.'' The rankings: Best prepared (least at risk): Bermuda, Chile, Canada, United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, Israel.

Better prepared: Benin, South Africa, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Syria.

Moderately prepared: Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Botswana, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Argentina, Brazil, Dominica, Dominican Republic.

Less prepared: Central African Republic, Congo (former Zaire), Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Swaziland, Gambia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cambodia, Laos, Samoa, Vietnam, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, West Bank & Gaza Strip.

Worst prepared (Most at risk): Liberia, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, Belize, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Moldova, Tajikistan, Egypt, Oman, Qatar.

Inadequate information: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mali, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Cuba, Guyana, Nicaragua, Azerbaijan, Macau, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Belarus, Cyprus, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Iraq, Libya.