watchdog probing harmful tax jurisdictions, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

And Bermuda can expect to find itself included in an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) list of countries which have shown a high level of compliance with requests from the multi-national group -- which is due to be released in the next few days.

The list of countries which assisted OECD investigators will be released in advance of a separate hit list of dodgy jurisdictions due to be unveiled later this month.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox said last night: "It's a good sign and it looks very good.

"It's wonderful news -- we have done enough work, I think, and it bodes very well for Bermuda.'' A spokesman at the OECD's Paris headquarters confirmed yesterday: "We will be releasing a list of jurisdictions which have agreed to cooperate.

"I'm not exactly sure when we will be releasing it...but it will be sometime between now and the release of the main report, but we don't have a firm date for that.'' The spokesman declined to say whether Bermuda would make the list of helpful countries.

But he added: "I think there is an expectation that Bermuda will be one of the more cooperative jurisdictions.'' The spokesman said: "We recognise that Bermuda has a serious offshore industry with regard to insurance -- and we're not out to stamp out offshore countries per se.

"What we're trying to do is establish rules so people aren't taking advantage of those countries for illicit tax evasion or tax avoidance.'' The spokesman stressed that the 29-nation OECD -- which includes the UK and US as members -- was also looking at onshore finance.

He said: "It also concerns tax issues in the OECD countries themselves -- we're also targetting what we regard as harmful tax processes in industrialised countries.''