The Base lands may have too poor soil to create a world-class golf course, it was revealed yesterday.

And the massive cost of importing enough good quality soil could bunker the ambitious plan altogether.

The grim prediction came from an Island plant expert, who said: "There has never been any soil testing done out there as far as I know. But you just have to look at the Base grass and the vegetation -- the soil is probably very thin. If I was going in there to spend some money, I'd want to look at that very carefully.'' The plant expert -- who asked not to be identified -- said that much of the Base lands were originally created through landfill, which would be of very poor quality for growing purposes. And if his fears are proved true, developers could be faced with a massive bill running into millions of dollars to import and spread enough good quality soil.

The expert added: "You are not allowed to import soil to Bermuda unless it's been fumigated. The amount of soil you are talking about, the cost of that alone would be prohibitive, I would imagine.'' The US Naval Annex in Southampton was revealed as the proposed site for a championship standard links in October, when Government published its plans for the returned military bases.

Yesterday Government Finance Minister Dr. Grant Gibbons, the man in charge of the re-development plans for the Bases, said that the soil problems had already been aired. He admitted: "There is no soil on a good part of the western area of the property, but my understanding is that we haven't looked into this in great depth.

"But we understand there are ways in which we can get round this. Some strains of grass can be sown on sand with organic matter added.'' Dr. Gibbons admitted importing soil would be a major problem, in terms of cost and the risk of introducing foreign bugs and insect life. But he insisted: "We don't feel this is a show-stopper by any stretch of the imagination. It is one of a number of challenges we face, but it's not something we feel would impede the plans from going ahead.

"It will be up to those submitting proposals to decide what is the most cost-effective way to do it. We will just have to wait and see how people approach that particular aspect.'' The 250-acre annex is seen as the "last remaining large site that could be used to balance the Island's tourist product.'' When the plans for the Base lands were published, it was announced that "considerable interest'' had been shown in a PGA standard golf course and some of the world's leading golf course architects have already made preliminary drawings.

The golf course plan was seen as one of the uses which would lead off redevelopment of the massive returned areas.

Dr. Gibbons said in October that a development brief and call for proposals could be prepared as early as the start of next year.