The head of Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) flies into Bermuda this week for showdown talks with the Government over concerns of the possible flouting of passenger limits on his vessel.

Tomorrow Tourism Minister David Allen will meet face to face with NCL chief executive Colin Veitch in a bid to resolve issues over the potential selling of unauthorised cruises on the Norwegian Majesty .

The Minister issued a stern warning to the line that its contract could be in jeopardy if it had broken an agreement on filling cabins above the designated limit.

He said legal advice had been sought on the situation, adding that the cruise line had "a very serious problem'' if it had been filling cabins with regular passengers instead of those on cruise and stay holidays.

NCL were supposed to fill the 250 extra cabins created by a 1998 $53 million "stretching'' of the vessel with passengers combining a cruise with a stay in a Bermuda hotel only.

But a full investigation was launched into its numbers after it was revealed that the cruise and stay scheme was a failure -- with NCL headquarters and travel agents having little or no knowledge of the programme.

And recent passenger counts supplied by agents John S. Darrell show the Majesty has regularly been bringing in hundreds more people than its 1,500 "regular'' cruise passenger limit.

During the last four weeks it brought in 1,688, 1,729, 1,771 and 1,760 people.

So far, both the Department of Tourism and NCL have declined to say how many cruise and stay holidays have been sold.

One cruise insider said the company had been spending a lot of money on marketing but it had not worked -- adding that people were not attracted to the idea of combining a stay in a hotel with a cruise holiday.

And the source added that turning regular cruise people away would not automatically increase those that stayed in hotels.

He said: "People decide they want to go on a cruise, they then decide where they want to go.

"To reduce numbers of cruise ship passengers would prevent people from coming, who wouldn't otherwise come.'' NCL have agreed not to sell any additional cabins until after tomorrow's meeting.

NCL was taken over by Star Cruises last year and since then the company has experienced a change in its upper management structure, including the appointment of Mr. Veitch.