come under the spotlight of the US media.

Controversy over the incident, which outraged Bermudians in 1986, has been revived now that the Texas billionaire is a probable presidential candidate.

The international US magazine Time reported yesterday that Mr. Perot had part of the reef blown up to dock his yacht at the doorstep of his vacation home.

The Time story was then picked up by US TV network news shows, including CBS, who flashed it into the homes of Americans -- and Bermudians -- last night.

A Time spokesman told The Royal Gazette last night: "The story may be an interesting parable as to how Mr. Perot gets his own way. It shows how he deals with government agencies.'' The Time article, by Washington correspondent Mr. Jay Peterzell, says Bermuda's Department of the Environment had ruled against Perot's request to dredge Castle Harbour in front of his home because the area was protected by environmental laws.

"Faced with that denial,'' the magazine says, "Perot's contractors realized that any similar request for permission to cut a channel in a nearby coral reef would probably be nixed as well. A week later, without filing for a permit, Perot's construction team blew a section of the reef near his house.'' Time said The Royal Gazette , investigated the incident and was told by Mr.

Perot: "If all this is going to become news, I'm gone ... I am going to sell my houses and leave.'' Apparently Bermuda officials were chastened by the threat, Time says, and the officials then said there was no evidence Mr. Perot or members of his family had been involved in any damage to the coral reef.

But Time says Police records indicate that underwater dynamite and detonators were issued for two days in succession to marine construction expert Mr. Doug Mackie, who had been hired by Mr. Perot's main contractor, Bermuda Engineering Associates.

Mr. Mackie told Time that Mr. Perot put on snorkel gear and "dove the site with us and watched the drilling going on,'' the dynamite being loaded into the holes, and then watched from the shore as the charges were set off.

Time says the dynamited reef, like much of Bermuda's "Coral Harbor'', was in poor shape and that it may have already been dead when Mr. Perot's construction team blew it up.

The Bermuda Government decided the damage was not great and eventually issued Perot a retroactive permit for the dredging "on the understanding that Perot would not do any more unauthorised blasting,'' the magazine says.

The question of who authorised the blasting was never answered, says Time. Mr.

Mackie said it was the construction firm, but a former employee denied it to the magazine. Mr. Perot said he assumed the construction firm had the necessary permits.

Time says Mr. Perot last week flatly denied watching Mr. Mackie drill or dynamite the seabed. It adds that Mr. Perot telephoned Mr. Mackie "and quizzed him angrily.'' Time says the construction expert "now says his memory of the incident is no longer clear.''