A bomb threat was made to the US Consulate yesterday morning but a Police search found no cause for alarm.

A Police spokesman told The Royal Gazette: "We are investigating two calls made to the US Consulate of a threatening nature, one was a bomb threat.

"The grounds were searched but no suspicious items were found. We are still maintaining a security presence at the consulate - armed Police will remain."

He said no suspects had so far been arrested in relation to the threats.

Asked if they were hoax calls, the spokesman said: "You have to take all threats seriously, especially at times of heightened security such as right now.

"It was taken very seriously."

However it is believed staff at the Consulate, which only reopened on Thursday, were not evacuated during the scare.

Consul Jennifer Schools refused to comment about the specifics of the incident.

But she said: "I think here in Bermuda, considering the Police protection, is as secure as anywhere in the world."

Security guards were seen holding mirrors underneath vehicles entering the Middle Road, Devonshire premises yesterday, under the watchful eye of the Police.

Ms Schools said security is to be beefed up at the American Consulate in a $1 million-plus revamp next year.

She refused to say when the armed Police presence, deployed in response to the attacks in America on Tuesday, would be removed from the Middle Road, Devonshire building.

"They will be there for the foreseeable future at the pound but I will not go into details."

But she repeated that there was no special threat to Americans in Bermuda despite heightened security presence.

She said the Consulate upgrade was already in train as the US government beefed up security world-wide after the attack on American embassies in Africa in the late 1990s.

She said: "All American facilities were looked at and they did the most critical ones first.

"The work should begin in 2002 and it should be completed that year. It will be part of a major improvement in access to the grounds.

"Fencing will improve but I don't want to get too much into the details but we will improve the physical security.

"We will have more control over who is going in and out with a security guard operating a gate from a new Bermuda-style outpost building.

"We can't say when it will start - it's a big project. We are waiting for materials to do it."

Last year visitors were banned from parking on the grounds of the Consulate as the US stepped up vigilance in the wake of the increased terrorist threat.