experts assess clean-up costs at the old American Navy bases in Bermuda, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

It is understood the services of environmental experts from ERM Enviroclean -- the British firm clearing up oil pollution at the old HMS Malabar -- had offered to take a look at the old base lands.

A UK source said: "They offered to do an analysis for the US Government -- but they were told basically to get lost. And they weren't particularly nice about it, either, I understand.'' Yesterday, a spokesman for the US Consulate General said his office had not been approached by ERM -- but he did not rule out a direct approach to Washington.

No-one from ERM could be contacted yesterday.

The snub came as pressure mounts on the American Defence Department to clear up the mess left behind when the US Navy quit its Bermuda bases.

It is understood the US pollution on the base lands includes as much as 6,000 cubic metres of waste oil -- about ten times the amount the UK Government is clearing up at its old Royal Navy base at Dockyard.

And the total bill for remedial work is expected to run into millions of dollars after a 40-year-plus US presence in Bermuda, which ended in 1995.

But the US government -- which took over ten percent of the Island's land rent-free as part of the lend-lease deal struck by the US and Britain during World War II -- has insisted it bears no liability for the toxic flotsam and jetsam left behind.

In addition to waste oil, tons of asbestos has been collected from US Navy buildings and awaits disposal.

The Bermuda Government wants the US to take the potentially deadly dust of its hands.

And oil pollution has been found at the old Naval Air Station in St. David's.

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

A row over who will foot the bill for the clean-up -- which could run as high as $65 million -- has been a thorn in the side of US/Bermuda relations since the US bases closed as part of the `peace dividend' following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

The official US position is US will only pay for clean-ups when there is "an imminent threat to health and safety'' -- which the US authorities insist is not the case in Bermuda.

But late last year, signs the US position was softening emerged with the arrival on the Island of US Defence Department pollution experts to take a fresh look at the former bases.

And US president Bill Clinton added to the 1998 Defence Department appropriations bill last December, inserting a key clause allowing the US to look at clean-ups -- "even when dealing with Defence Department installations that have already been returned to a host nation.'' The news came as ERM experts completed the first stage of a massive $1 million clean-up of thousands of gallons of oil in caves near Malabar.

Oil which once stood nearly two metres deep is now down to about a centimetre.

A total of 600 cubic metres of oil has been pumped out and is now in storage awaiting disposal.

It is understood two overseas firms are testing the oil to see if it is suitable for export for use asphalt manufacture.

MILITARY MIL