Government is keeping a close eye on a planned TV advertising campaign in America which will attack Bermuda as an offshore jurisdiction.

A group calling itself the "Bermuda Project" has sponsored advertisements which portray US companies with holding companies in Bermuda as unpatriotic. The campaign will begin soon. Yesterday Acting Minister of Finance, Paula Cox, said that Government was continuing to monitor these and other initiatives.

Last month a group called "Come Home to America" launched a newspaper campaign which promoted repatriation to the offshore holding companies of US corporations. The tax committee of the US Congress passed inversion provisions in energy tax legislation and the House Ways and Means Committee passed a proposal for a moratorium on corporate inversions - the term used for setting up shell companies in offshore jurisdictions - from 4 March, 2003 until 1 January, 2005.

Ms Cox pointed out that extra funds had been set aside for lobbying and said: "It should be noted that though the Ministry continues to monitor the position and keep the situation under active review and liaise with our overseas lobbyist routinely in this regard, we note that this is not the mainstay of Bermuda's international business."