Malabar , officials said yesterday.

Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind announced last week that Britain is continuing to reduce military commitments in former colonies and dependent territories and there were "real prospects'' of more cuts to come.

Sources indicated HMS Malabar was the subject of a Government White Paper and would be closed in the near future.

But officials in the United Kingdom and the Commanding Officer of the Base Cdr. Robin Bawtree have denied any such rumours.

A Royal Navy spokesman in London said: "The statement of defence estimates was published recently and there was nothing about the future of HMS Malabar .'' Cdr. Bawtree said he did not know where the rumours had arisen adding that there were no plans for the closure. He said: "I have heard nothing like that. It will be here for another 300 years.'' In fact in March it was announced that HMS Malabar 's role has expanded following the scaling down of the US Naval Annex.

The 20-person base is now handling more NATO ships, particularly from the United States.

There has been uncertainty about the base since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the cutbacks in US and Canadian forces in Bermuda.

But the UK Government were said to have placed strategic importance on the base, partly because it is en route to the Caribbean.

In his speech to the Royal United Institute for Defence Studies last week, Mr.

Rifkind announced an infantry battalion had already been withdrawn from Gibraltar and plans for a staged withdrawal from Hong Kong were under way.

Britain was cutting its garrison in Belize and reducing contributions to a UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.

He said: "In the dependent territories and other places where we have forces deployed, reductions in commitments are continuing and I can see real prospects of more to come.'' Britain has about 2,500 troops serving as UN peacekeepers in the ex-Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and smaller numbers in Cambodia, Cyprus, the Gulf and Croatia -- for a total of 3,400.

There are also significant numbers of British forces based in former colonies and dependent territories, like Bermuda, as well as those in Hong Kong, Belize and Gibraltar.

Mr. Rifkind said this second round of defence cuts since the end of the Cold War was made possible by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reduced threat from Russia.