The US Navy team here recently to look at the extent of environmental damage at the former US Naval Air Station has 120 days to report its findings to the Secretary of Defence, William Cohen.

The visit of the five Navy officials, who left yesterday, came as the result of high-level ongoing negotiations between the Bermuda and US Governments.

US President Bill Clinton has signed a Department of Defence Authorisation Bill which paved the way for the Navy to look at the issue even though the Base lands have already been returned to Bermuda.

Prior to this, US policy dictated that such considerations were not to be given after the lands revert to the host country.

The policy shift has raised Government hopes that the US Navy will eventually take full responsibility for the environmental damage caused during its stay on close to ten percent of the Island's land.

The Navy must find "known imminent and substantial danger to human health and safety'' before undertaking a clean-up.

At a press conference yesterday, Premier Pamela Gordon and Finance Minister Grant Gibbons said that the US Navy technical officers' visit was a significant step forward.

Talks between Bermuda and the US have been taking place since the early 1990s when Sir John Swan was Premier.

Subsequent Premiers, David Saul and now Ms Gordon, have continued the talks.

After more than three years of weaving through layers of US Government hierarchy, Dr. Gibbons said that Congress now wants the US Navy to revisit the entire issue and report its findings.

Ms Gordon, meanwhile, said that the scale of the achievement was remarkable and paid tribute to the persistence and help of political heavyweight Charles Rangel, a Congressmen from New York.

Dr. Gibbons said Bermuda is mentioned prominently in the Department of Defence Appropriation Bill because of Congressmen Rangel's influence.

While not binding, the Premier said that if the Navy's own technical people suggest there is danger to the Island from the asbestos or abandoned industrial waste, the Navy may feel some obligation to make the money available for the clean-up.

Ms Gordon said a strong case could be made that some environmental waste that the US Navy left behind is an "imminent and substantial danger to human health and safety'' because it was within one quarter mile of water.

"We don't want to wait for serious health problems before they decide what is wrong,'' she said.

"We are very hopeful that they will do the right thing...if another stumbling block is put in our way we will barrel forward.

"We will go for it and stay on it until we get a satisfactory conclusion so that Bermuda is the ultimate beneficiary.'' While here, the US Navy team also met with Bermuda Land Development Company technical officers.

And they toured the UK Government's $1 million clean-up site at Malabar which is thought to have gone some way to convincing the Americans to have a closer look at the environmental impact of their 40-year presence here.

The clean-up has been a thorn in the side of US-Bermuda relations since the US Navy quit the Island in 1995.

Tons of asbestos from US Navy buildings has been collected and awaits disposal.

Oil pollution has also been found at the former base and in caves below the former US Naval Annex in Southampton -- now known as Morgan's Point and earmarked for a major tourist development.