A call for Bermuda to address its racial problems head on has been given support from across the political spectrum.

Chamber of Commerce President Cris Valdes-Dapena said public meetings were needed after noticing the strength of feeling evident at the forums on long term residents.

PLP supporter Rolfe Commissiong favoured TV debates for the race talks which he hopes could be possible within the next two months.

He said he had been discussing the issue with Ms Valdes-Dapena.

He said: "Ideally it should include old white families and their latter day descendants because traditionally they have not been participating in this debate.

"It would be unfair to suggest they haven't moved on but there are some elements within that group who are clinging on tenaciously to those old views.

"But they are silent.'' Mr. Commissiong said the debate would not be a panacea.

He said: "It's a first step because every issue we deal with is a subtext.

"I would like to see the two communities come together.'' He said Independence would help this process.

"It would force Bermudians to view themselves as Bermudians unlike what we find now. We are talking about a national identity.'' He said other countries had benefited from this move.

He said: "We don't find the same degree of racial divide in Caribbean no matter what people think about other aspects of life there. We are behind the Caribbean on this.'' Asked whether the unease in the black community was mainly due to past injustices or ongoing problems, Mr. Commissiong said: "It's definitely the former.'' National Association for Reconciliation founder Eva Hodgson said: "I was of course delighted to see the piece, as a white business person she might influence that constituency.

"Obviously some blacks have been talking about it all along.'' She said the NAR had been campaigning for it for more than a decade.

UBP MP Allan Marshall supported public race talks but said he didn't want a repeat of the intimidation suffered by some at the long term residents meetings.

He said talks on the issue of race had occurred under the UBP watch in the lead-up to the passage of the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality in the mid-1990s.