Bermuda, the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Air Station said yesterday.

They were the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) base at Cooper's Island and the US Naval Facility at Tudor Hill in Southampton, Capt.

Timothy Bryan told The Royal Gazette .

He expected the largest tracts of land, including the 1,300-acre US Naval Air Station and the US Naval Annex, would all be returned to Bermuda.

Capt. Bryan made his comments after addressing the Hamilton Rotary Club at the Princess Hotel, where he said the first official meeting to negotiate return of the Base lands was set for tomorrow at the Cabinet Building.

The meeting is expected to coincide with the official announcement of the Base closures by the US Defence Department.

The Navy, which operates the Civil Air Terminal, is scheduled to withdraw from the Base by September of 1995.

The NASA base is a tracking station for US space shuttles. The Naval Facility at Tudor Hill, which has been closed for a year, provided oceanographic data to the naval fleet.

A possible future use for Tudor Hill was "under discussion in Washington'', Capt. Bryan said.

Capt. Bryan, who assumed command of the Base in August, said he concluded soon after his arrival that the US Navy fleet was no longer the Base's primary customer.

The main function was now "transition'', and "the true customer is the people of Bermuda, because it is those people to whom we have an obligation to turn over the operation of that Airport'', he said.

The turnover was to be "seamless and transparent'', so that commercial airlines did not notice the Navy's departure.

As he began talks with the Government of Bermuda, Capt. Bryan said he had the assistance of a lawyer and a support team in Norfolk, Virginia.

But, "there is more at stake here than the legalese and the interpretation of agreements'' dating back to the Second World War, he said. More important was "doing the right thing by allies'', and recognising support that had been given in the hope it "can be counted on again if ever needed''.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact and the changed mission of the US Navy meant "we had to change in a pretty big way'', Capt. Bryan said of the Base.

When he arrived, there was confusion among Navy personnel about the role of the Base and how long it would last.

Of aircraft that landed at the Base, 70 percent were commercial, he said.

"Every now and then you see a US Navy plane land''. Under those circumstances, Navy personnel questioned "what in the heck are we doing here?'' That question had since been answered, he said. "They're here for a purpose -- to hand over those functions in a quality fashion to the Government of Bermuda and the people of Bermuda.''