Premier Pamela Gordon will kick off today's new session of the House of Assembly with a report on her trip to London's conference of the Dependent Territories.

And yesterday she pledged to meet with the Island and international business sectors to discuss Britain's demands that the Dependent Territories put in place a host of new measures to beat white-collar crime and money laundering.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness, speaking from London on behalf of the Premier, said she was looking forward to an early meeting with the financial sector.

Mr. Edness added: "She also asked that the public be assured that no decisions on any of the matters placed on the table would be taken before proper consultation with the Bermudian people had taken place.'' Mr. Cook told the Dependent Territories Association in London that he wanted to see a checklist of measures to avoid a flow of dirty money and enforce financial regulations to UK, EC and international standards to be put in place by 1999.

Mr. Cook also wants to see legislation to "allow the Dependent Territories to cooperate fully with overseas investigations.'' And he said he wanted to see tough new rules to battle money-laundering, including ways of checking companies incorporated in the colonies but doing business elsewhere.

And he asked for "genuinely independent'' regulatory bodies -- paid for through a levy on the financial industries themselves, if necessary.

Business leaders said after Mr. Cook's speech that Bermuda already enjoyed a good reputation and had strong controls in place.

And they warned against a top-heavy bureacracy being allowed to strangle business efficiency and the risks of giving away too much power to outside bodies to probe Bermuda-based firms "on a whim.'' Later, the House will debate the report of the Task Force on Women's Issues, which was unveiled last year.

The task force found women -- the majority of the workforce and generally better educated than men -- earned on average $10,000 a year less than males.

It was also found that schoolgirls are still guided towards traditionally female jobs, while single mothers form a disproportionate of the poorest sections of society.

The task force made 190 separate recommendations, including emergency housing for women, equal pay and equal opportunities legislation.

Also on the agenda is the Golf Courses (Consolidation) Act 1998, which seeks to bring all three Government golf courses under a single management umbrella.

The House may also consider a draft order to bring the Bermuda Commodities Exchange and the Bermuda Commodities Exchange clearing house under the regulation of the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Both were set up last year.

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