Security is to be beefed up at the American Consulate in a $1 million-plus revamp, Acting Consul Jennifer Schools said yesterday.

She refused to say when the armed Police presence, deployed in response to the attacks in America on Tuesday, would be removed from the Middle Road, Devonshire building.

"They will be there for the foreseeable future at the pound but I will not go into details."

But she repeated that there was no special threat to Americans in Bermuda despite the heightened security presence. She said the Consulate upgrade was already in train as the US government beefed up security world-wide after the attack on American embassies in Africa in August, 1996.

She said: "All American facilities were looked at and they did the most critical ones first.

"The work should begin in 2002 and it should be completed that year. It will be part of a major improvements in access to the grounds.

"Fencing will improve but I don't want to get too much into the details but we will improve the physical security.

"We will have more control over who is going in and out with a security guard operating a gate from a new Bermuda-style outpost building.

"We can't say when it will start - it's a big project. We are waiting for materials to do it."