up to provide a multi-billion dollar satellite communications system for the former Soviet Union.

The Island could also find itself being used as the primary site for receiving satellite signals and distributing them to the United States, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean and other areas.

That was the view put forward yesterday by Mr. Gregory Plunkett, co-chairman of Bermuda-based America Russian Cosmos (ARC), a joint American/Russian venture.

"Bermuda already has the satellite dishes to receive signals,'' he said.

"There's also fibre optic cable which could link with several other countries.

"We're exploring with local business interests the opportunity to use Bermuda as a gateway for our telecommunications activities.

"That effectively entails taking down the satellite signals in Bermuda and redistributing them through Bermuda's facilities.'' Mr. Plunkett was one of a party of 15 ARC representatives -- including eight Russians -- in Bermuda this week for a series of meetings, including one with Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan.

Discussions have also been held with Minister of Telecommunications the Hon.

Michael J. Winfield.

Co-chairing ARC with Mr. Plunkett is Dr. Igor S. Tsyrlin, one of the former Soviet Union's leading scientists, working on the space and satellite programmes.

The former Soviet Union awarded him its leading prize for scientists, the Lenin Prize.

Through an interpreter, Dr. Tsyrlin said yesterday that Bermuda had "exceeded all my expectations''.

"I knew a lot about Bermuda before coming here but I never realised that a relatively small country could contain so many warm and lovely people,'' he said.

"Even more so, I realise that Bermuda is a major international financial and business centre. It is most impressive and beautiful.'' The warm reception the party had received was "overwhelming'', he added.

Asked how he felt being in a land which is run on money-making principles which were despised in the former Soviet Union, he said: "Regardless of the size of the nation and the living standards of the nation, the global picture economically and politically has changed so much that in a sense this Russian delegation represents the new way of thinking which has been created in Russia.'' Mr. Tristan Del, ARC's executive vice president and a former advisor to the Russian Government, said: "We hope that this major international endeavour will contribute to the overall well-being of Bermuda and its people.

"Ideally, we would like to have this entire communications project set up and put together in such a way that Bermuda remains right in the middle of it all and its people and Government benefit just as much as the major superpowers will.'' ARC is a joint venture between another Bermuda-based firm, American-owned Friends Trading Corporation, and Russia's largest business association, Inform Cosmos, which employs some 230,000 people and is owned by four major scientific and industrial corporations and a bank.

ARC plans to create, operate and market a satellite communications system for businesses and governments.

The system will have a direct effect on the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the former Soviet Union who, for the first time, will be able to use an efficient telephone system and receive high quality facsimile and television transmissions.