Bermuda must get personal with London and Washington to fight the belief that Bermuda is a tax haven, says Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons.

Such a move would help fight movements such as The Bermuda Project, a group founded by well-known author and syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington. The Bermuda Project (www.thebermudaproject.com) has launched a TV ad campaign in the US featuring images of soldiers in Iraq juxtaposed with paunchy CEOs in three-piece suits at a tropical resort. The voice-over says: "In the sands of Iraq, our soldiers risk their lives for our country. At the same time, big corporations are abandoning our country and setting up phoney tax shelters in the sands of Bermuda."

And in a Press release from April 9 the group stated: "The Bermuda Project plans an extensive campaign, including on-line mobilisation of citizens ... to enable outraged Americans to let the corporations and the Congress know what they think about this practice."

The Press release noted The Bermuda Project would be joining with online activist networks numbering around two million people.

Answering questions during a Sandys Rotary meeting on Wednesday night, Dr. Gibbons said Bermuda lost a huge opportunity to build up relationships with Washington when responsibility for negotiating the Baselands was handed over to the British several years ago.

"Personal relationships are important in the US," he said. "We have to actively be in Washington, London, Brussels, wherever it takes to make sure the message is correct and clear."

That message is not "from the sands of Iraq to the sands of Bermuda", but that in fact most US companies who incorporate here do pay US taxes, and are not here to avoid doing so.

However as one Rotarian said: "People in Government are not telling people that."

"We have to do a better job to let people - particularly the US - know that, especially in the reinsurance industry, we've done our part," said Dr. Gibbons.

Bermuda (as author of `Guide to the Economy of Bermuda' Robert Stewart noted at a recent panel discussion on Bermuda's economy at the Bermuda College) has been credited with playing a large role in re-stabilising the global economy after the attacks on the World Trade Center by allowing so many reinsurance companies to set up here so quickly.

"We are playing a role in a responsible way," said Dr. Gibbons. "You can call it lobbying, but it is the relationship between the legislators here and the legislators there that is going to be important. I think we have lost some of that connection over the past five years."