what some around the world fear to be a New Year crisis.

With the Island, and the globe, on the very edge of passing into another Millennium and the hyped-up threat of a Y2K computer bug just hours away, banks and supermarkets reported a panic-free week.

And Cable and Wireless asked residents not to "immediately assume'' that having difficulty in placing an overseas phone call means a Y2K problem.

Marketing communications manager John Instone explained that any problems experienced by people would most likely be "a simple matter of network congestion''.

Calm over Y2K "Other international carriers are expressing the same sentiments because calling volumes all over the world on New Year's Eve may be as high as 50 percent above normal,'' Mr. Instone said.

"This situation is probably a greater threat to completing a phone call than any Y2K `doomsday' predictions.'' Mr. Instone suggested that if callers were unable to get through at their first attempt on New Year's Eve, they should try again later.

"If the problem persists,'' he said, "customers can call our 24-hour help desk at 297-7022 for assistance.'' Bank of N.T. Butterfield Ltd. CEO Calum Johnston said: "We've not seen any great changes in cash withdrawals from ATM machines over the past few days.

"I was actually more worried about people taking money out of the money market fund, which is very liquid,'' he continued, "but it has, in fact, gone up recently rather than down.

"There's no sign of any real panic in that area at all.'' Bank of Bermuda senior vice president for retail clients Danny Fox said: "While there were a record number of card transactions over the Christmas period, there have not been an unusual amount of cash withdrawals to date in preparation for the Millennium.

"Although people's money is much safer in a bank account than anywhere else, we anticipated that there would be a higher customer demand for cash over the holiday period and we are well prepared to deal with that.'' Asked if there had been increased activity at Lindo's Family Foods, front-end manager Chris Smith said: "To be honest, no. I don't think it's been too crazy.

"People are just gearing up for parties like they usually do at this time of year and it doesn't look like people are worried too much.'' White and Sons' floor manager Ann Hamilton said: "No, we haven't seen anything unusual. It's been mostly the same old Christmas shopping going on.'' But she added: "We're probably selling a little extra on batteries and water, but not too much.'' Manager at Somerset's Maximart II Luigi Macchione said sales had been "pretty good'' but added that there were no signs of anyone panicking.

Cable and Wireless also issued their Millennium preparedness statement, a spokesperson saying that they expected it to be "business as usual'' after the new year.

"At the beginning of the Millennium Programme around 30,000 business component types were initially identified for assessment,'' he said. "As of today, in all material aspects, this work has been completed.'' The spokesperson also advised customers to assess their telecommunications equipment properly in respect of all "Year 2000 issues'' and said further information on group Millennium issues could be found on the Internet at www.cwplc.com.