headquarters of Russia's infamous KGB spy network.

Mr. Black, head of the Bermuda security and investigation company Island Wide Security Services, will be one of the first Westerners to glimpse how Russia is being policed following the collapse of Communism.

He will rub shoulders with Russian intelligence officials, surveillance experts and ex-KGB agents.

Mr. Black will be joining about 30 other security experts from the US, Puerto Rico and Scandinavia on a two-week professional goodwill trip.

The group has been brought together by the Washington-based organisation People to People International, which was set up by President Dwight Eisenhower and boasts President George Bush as honorary chairman.

It is a private sector body "dedicated to promoting international understanding''.

To go on the trip, delegates are paying about $5,000 each. The idea of the visit was to give advice to the new private security industry in Russia, said Mr. Black, an ex-Policeman who is now a security consultant and investigator for companies.

"Since the fall of communism you don't get the KGB watching everybody and it's freer,'' he said.

"There's a lot of people formerly in the KGB who are going out and getting into the security business. These companies are popping up every day and they have no experience whatsoever.

"The idea is for us to meet them and for them to pick our brains. It's the first time it's ever been done.

"I'm looking forward to it -- it's the chance of a lifetime.'' The trip, which starts in October, is being led by Mr. Gerard Burke, who was a foreign intelligence advisor to President Richard Nixon and who is well known to his former opposite numbers in Russia.

Meetings have been fixed up with officials at Russia's internal security ministry and foreign intelligence division, which have taken over the functions of the KGB.

Delegates will also visit public prosecutors and lawyers, tour prisons and Police stations, and talk to representatives of Alex, the first private security and investigation agency set up by ex-KGB men.

A highlight of the trip will be a visit to Moscow, where they will view the huge headquarters of the once-feared KGB. Flying in KGB planes, they will also visit St. Petersburg and the formerly secret industrial city of Ekaterinburg.

Topics for discussion will include weapons and self-defence training, computers, industrial espionage and "public surveillance''.

Mr. Max Gerber of People to People said the background to the trip was the increasing crime rate in Russia, which meant a big demand for private security services.