A report on whether Bermuda should switch to a new form of daylight saving time from next year will be delivered to the Cabinet in April.

Ministers will have to decide whether the Island should stay with the current system, follow US plans to extend daylight saving time from 2007 or have a different scheme altogether.

The Government's Central Policy Unit has been conducting research and a public consultation on the various options since last autumn and will make a recommendation to Cabinet on the best way forward.

Assistant cabinet secretary Warren Jones said: "We have completed our work. We are hoping within the next two weeks to get the document to Cabinet though I can't tell you what our recommendation is. They'll make a decision on which way to go."

Any decision other than staying with the current system would require an amendment to the relevant law ? the Seasonal Time Variation Act ? and would have to go before the House of Assembly.

At the moment, Bermuda follows the US system of putting the clocks forward one hour from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. As of next year, the US will begin daylight saving time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November to reduce energy costs.

Mr. Jones said: "We did quite a bit of research locally and overseas and no matter where you look it's the same arguments. In no country you look at is there a clear winner. You either make somebody happy or angry.

"We have the farmers who do not like daylight saving time. But if you ask the business community they want to stay in line with the US. There is nothing we heard here that we haven't heard in other jurisdictions.

"Cabinet needs to see the outcome of that work and once they do I'm sure the Premier would share the direction that they are proposing to go."