morning to discuss the cause of the epidemic that struck down hundreds of guests last week.

It is believed that medical authorities now have final test results which will prove conclusively what caused the outbreak of sickness.

And although both the hotel and health experts are keeping an open mind on how the disease spread, the hotel's water supply is now believed to be the prime suspect.

If the hotel is found to be liable it could open the floodgates for a stream of compensation claims from guests who were violently ill after staying at the hotel.

Yesterday two US residents, who were staying at the hotel on the weekend of February 14 when the epidemic struck, claimed they were vigorously pursuing compensation from the hotel.

But Marriott general manager Mark Conklin said it was too early to tell how the virus spread. "Until we get the results of these tests back we can't say what caused the outbreak,'' he said. We have been contacting guests and telling them that we had a high bacteria count in the water. When that bacteria reaches a certain level, it's time to do something.

"But we have been carrying out a super-chlorination programme and hopefully we will be able to get this hotel running again.'' HEALTH HTH