Big Macs and "finger-lickin' good'' chicken are here and The Royal Gazette has learned a third fast food franchise may be on the way.

The Queen Street Kentucky Fried Chicken is set to be expanded into a Pizza Hut-style restaurant serving pizzas, pasta dishes, salads and fried chicken, KFC president Mr. Ian Paton confirmed yesterday.

"We are going to broaden our menu,'' he said.

And there are plans to go into direct competition with Trinity Chicken and the increased number of pizza delivery companies in Bermuda by delivering items on the new menu including pizzas and chicken dinners.

Mr. Paton disclosed he may also consider applying for a beer and wine licence, which is held by most American Pizza Huts.

But he insisted, "We are not opening a Pizza Hut.'' He conceded, however, that KFC had "sent people (staff and managers from Bermuda) to the United States to be trained at Pizza Huts'' -- as well as KFCs.

Mr. Paton pointed out both KFC and Pizza Hut along with Taco Bell were under the umbrella of the huge Pepsi Co group.

Pepsi Co was providing the Bermuda KFC franchise with "helpful assistance'' in its new venture, he said.

KFC has taken over the Camera Store premises and plans to turn it into a relaxed restaurant with booths and dining tables and an "light and airy'' decor, he said.

The upstairs of the new expanded premises will be for the kitchen while the downstairs section of the existing KFC will be remodelled into a dining room.

The new premises will boost KFC's seating capacity from 80 to in excess of 200, Mr. Paton said.

And it is expected to open on December 5 with the renovations almost complete.

Despite Mr. Paton's denials, informed sources say the new premises will eventually be known as Pizza Hut.

KFC and Pizza Hut are often located side by side in US shopping malls and retail areas.

A Planning Department official said KFC had applied for and had been granted a building permit for the Camera Store premises.

However, he was unable to say what the premises would be called as "technically (the applicants) are not enforced to tell us''. "It could be called Pizza Hut,'' he said. "What it is called is not a concern for us.'' Applications for food and retail franchises must go through the Bermuda Monetary Authority, which was unaware yesterday whether there was any application for a Pizza Hut.

KFC, a publicly listed company with less than 40 percent of the shares owned by non-Bermudians, saw its profits rise more than 60 percent this year compared to last year when Mr. Paton, a non-Bermudian, said it was still feeling the bite of recession.

The 25-year-old franchise company managed to slip into Bermuda before establishment of a Government policy in 1971 preventing retail and food chain stores being set up in Bermuda.

KFC recently expanded, opening up a second restaurant on Burnaby Street.

Bermuda's other fast food franchise, McDonald's, is on the US Naval Air Station base and is opened to Bermuda residents twice a week.