A massive $5,000-a-week travel bill has been run up by Premier Jennifer Smith and her Chief of Staff David Burch in just two months.

And Bermuda's frequent flier Government was blasted by Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons.

He branded the costs for travel by the Premier and Ministers as sky-high -- and demanded they be brought back down to earth.

Dr. Gibbons said later: "The travel budget appears to have got out of hand -- it strikes me as way over the top.'' Dr. Gibbons was speaking after it was revealed that Premier Jennifer Smith and Chief of Staff David Burch had clocked up $40,000 in travel expenses in the first two months of the current financial year.

That works out at about $5,000 a week in travel and hotel expenses for the two, based on a four-week month.

And the total bill for Ministers' travel over the same time period was more than $91,000 -- out of a total annual Cabinet Office Ministerial travel budget for the year of $140,000. Tourism has a separate travel fund.

Since last November, when the PLP took power, more than $173,600 has been spent on Government travel.

The news came after Dr. Gibbons tabled a series of questions on travel spending for Finance Minister Eugene Cox.

And he accused Mr. Cox of dodging questions on whether he would have to come back to the House of Assembly for an increase in the travel budget.

Dr. Gibbons said: "If you look at a $140,000 budget and $91,000 being spent in the first two months, you come up with around four times the budgeted figure for the year.

"If travel continues at this rate, there will be a massive overspend -- and most people looking at it would say $140,000 won't last an entire year.'' He added: "I asked the Minister, and he avoided it, if there was to be an increase in the budgeted figure.

"He was either being evasive or he did not have a total grasp of what was being spent on travel.'' Dr. Gibbons added: "The incoming Government made great noises about `pockets of sloppiness' -- but when you consider we will be debating a 25 percent increase in land tax and the Minister of Finance said he would be able to fund everything through growth in the economy and cutting out pockets of sloppiness, it's worrying.

"All of a sudden, the travel budget appears to have run out of control.'' And Dr. Gibbons questioned the need for the Chief of Staff to accompany the Premier overseas.

He said: "I would have thought, particularly with travel which involved negotiations and discussions, it would be usual to take a senior Civil Servant along to make sure a record is created.

"It's not my sense that much of any of that has happened at all.'' Dr. Gibbons added: "One of the Premier's trips was almost three weeks -- that's an awful long time to be away. There is a way to carry out necessary overseas business with short periods of travel and less of it.'' Cox defends travel spending He also questioned a trip to Antigua by the Premier and Cabinet Secretary Leo Mills for the funeral of ex-prime minister Vere Bird.

Dr. Gibbons said: "We have almost no relationship with Antigua -- it's certainly not a business partner in any way or an island we would wish to emulate.'' And he added: "I thought Mr. Cox could have made a much better job breaking down the travel -- I think we have essentially only got a portion of the total travel expenses.'' But Mr. Cox defended the travel expenses -- and denied they were set to go into orbit.

He told MPs: "I don't want to use this House's time to speculate on what budget we have for the rest of the year.

"We in this party will not be going about spending money willy nilly without getting approval from this House like the former Government.'' He added later that claims of overspending were "arrant nonsense''.

Mr. Cox said: "What we have been doing, the Premier and I and other Ministers, we have gone abroad to represent the Country's interests.

"The costs which were incurred were legitimate and it's presumptious to think it's less.'' And he added he had been unable to obtain the figures for the previous Government's travel bills because they were currently sealed.

Mr. Cox said that international probes into offshore jurisdictions had dictated Government had to travel to protect Island interests.

He added that he had travelled to Paris personally to petition the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development -- which is currently drawing up a hitlist of dodgy jurisdictions -- and to the US for tax treaty talks.

And he said Dr. Gibbons would have done the same if he had been in office.

Mr. Cox added: "Sometimes, it's being there and being in a position to make a comment -- they feel you're committed to what's going on.'' And he said he had turned down trips to the Caymans for an analysis of Bermuda's position and Miami for a UK Foreign Office meeting on financial regulation due to pressure of work at home.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox Shadow Minister Grant Gibbons Premier Jennifer Smith