States could be reactivated if a Russian military threat ever resurfaces, the acting US Consul General said yesterday.

The easing of Cold War tensions and the widespread use of satellites for surveillance purposes resulted in the announcement of the closure of the US bases next year.

But Mr. Joseph O'Neill said Bermuda's usefulness as a key observation point in the North Atlantic should not be underestimated and did not discount the possibility that the Americans may once again use it as such.

"I would not in any way suggest that what was done in the past may not have to be done again,'' he told Hamilton Lions.

While US relations with the former Soviet Union have been reasonably friendly since Communism fell, the recent rise of nationalism in Russia and the umasking of former CIA official Aldrich Ames as a spy for Moscow have revealed how tenuous the relationship in fact is, he said.

At the same time, Mr. O'Neill would not offer a precise comment on any role the Island might play in the event of heightened tensions.

"I've said all I'm going to say on that subject,'' he stated.

Mr. O'Neill did say that the US did not take its relationship with Bermuda lightly. He pronounced US-Bermudian relations "excellent'' and stressed the US would never take the Island for granted.