The Queen's representative in Bermuda is to stay on beyond his original three-year term, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

And the Island could be in line for its first-ever woman Governor, former Northern Ireland Minister Mo Mowlam.

Ms Mowlam, now UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet troubleshooter, is being touted as front runner to replace Governor Thorold Masefield when he goes.

If appointed she would become the first woman Governor in Bermuda's 400-year history.

Mr. Masefield, however, is set to remain in his post until next year at least.

Deputy Governor Tim Gurney confirmed yesterday: "We anticipate no change of Governor this year.'' But he refused to speculate on who might be lined up as a replacement for career diplomat Mr. Masefield.

Mowlam could replace Masefield Governors are generally appointed for three years and Mr. Masefield took up the job in June, 1997.

But most Bermuda Governors, like Mr. Masefield's predecessor Lord Waddington, stay on beyond the original posting.

UK Parliamentary insiders, however, yesterday said Ms Mowlam, 50, was being mentioned in the Westminster corridors of power as a possible for the Bermuda job. One said: "Mo Mowlam's name is being talked about a lot in connection with Bermuda. It looks like, if she wants it, she can have it.'' Other names being mentioned as outsiders for the plum Bermuda posting -- which comes with rent-free mansion Government House, official limousine and a UK tax-free salary of more than $146,000 a year -- are veteran Labour politician Jack Cunningham and even former Conservative Prime Minister John Major. Ms Mowlam -- MP for the safe Labour seat of Redcar in the north of England -- was controversially removed from the Northern Ireland office in October last year.

She spent more than two years dealing with the troubled province and was the main mover behind the Good Friday agreement which led to rebel IRA gunmen and Loyalist terrorists declaring a cease-fire.

Ms Mowlam was later brought back into the Cabinet in a roving role, acting as Blair's "enforcer''.

The social anthropologist is a Ph.D. and former university lecturer and has been a UK MP for 13 years.

Mr. Cunningham, 60, was first elected to the House of Commons nearly 30 years ago.

He is a former Shadow Foreign Secretary and held a junior Ministry in the last British Labour Government in 1979 before Tony Blair led the party back to power in 1997.

Mo Mowlam