Mr. Joseph O'Neill has spent his diplomatic career in postings like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

When he was called from the Somali Desk in Washington to the director general's office and told he would be sent on temporary duty, "I knew right away it was going to be Mogadishu,'' Mr. O'Neill told The Royal Gazette .

"I was thinking of getting my desert boots and my safari suit and all the rest of it ready,'' he joked.

When she said he would be acting Consul General in Bermuda, he was sure she had made a mistake.

Nor could his wife believe the news.

"I occasionally pinch myself and say, `My God, I'm really lucky','' he said in an interview last week.

"Here, when they beep their horn they're not saying, `Get the hell out of the way,' they're saying hello.'' He said he was also impressed that the Bermudians he had met were not parochial and had "a sense of history''.

As a Minister Counsellor, Mr. O'Neill, 58, has the second-highest career rank in the US Foreign Service and is the highest-ranking diplomat to run the Consulate in many years.

"We do think about Bermuda -- it is important,'' he said, adding that he wanted to scotch rumours that the Consulate was closing or downsizing.

The Americans wanted to assure that the turnover of the US Naval Air Station and Civil Air Terminal went smoothly, and "that nothing comes up in the negotiations that would be harmful to the future relations between the people of Bermuda and the people of the United States,'' he said.

The Independence referendum was an internal matter, he said. "We will be strictly neutral and we would be upset and disappointed if people tried to use the US Government one way or another regarding this internal Bermudian affair.'' Most permanent Consul Generals are State Department appointees, but Bermuda's is a political appointment made by the White House. There has been a two-year delay in naming a successor to Mr. Ebersole Gaines, who was appointed by former President George Bush to serve on the Island.

Saudi Arabia is among several other countries now without a US Consul General, but is it is understood a permanent appointment for Bermuda is under discussion in Washington.

Mr. O'Neill expected his time in Bermuda -- likely less than a year -- would be both pleasurable and stimulating.

"I expect to be able to meet every member of the House,'' he said. "I expect to have regular contact with every member of the Government and the Loyal Opposition.'' Since taking up his post on February 8, he has already met both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops in Bermuda.

Mr. O'Neill said his knowledge of Bermuda was limited. While he would rely on his assistant and predecessor as acting Consul General, Dr. Stephen Kish, he hoped Bermudians would educate him.

"I want to be an educated observer of affairs Bermudian -- that's what I'm paid to do,'' he said.

Most of his recent experience was in the Horn of Africa. From 1985 to 1987, Mr. O'Neill was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

He remembered visiting refugee camps around Makele with US Senator Edward Kennedy.

"There were thousands of people huddled under burlap cloths and covering themselves with each other's bodies,'' he recalled. "There was a cold wind that would have chilled the heart of a saint, coming off the mountain.

"We were up about 7,000 feet and the wind was coming off so terribly, and the moaning of the people was so bad that one of Senator Kennedy's children started to cry. The tears froze on his face, and I could smell the stink of death.

"In the morning, among the whole crowd, we buried over 180 people,'' he said.

"As I think of it now I can still feel the wind and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

"Those were desperate conditions.'' A 30-year veteran of the foreign service, Mr. O'Neill holds the Superior Honour Award for service in Vietnam and three Meritorious Honour Awards. He has also served in Portugal, Thailand, India, and the Phillipines.

Mr. O'Neill joined the Army at 18 and served three years before attending Columbia University. He worked on Wall Street before joining the Foreign Service.

His 14-year-old son Kevin is with him in Bermuda. His wife Josephine and four other children would visit, he said.

Not knowing how long he would be staying, "I didn't want to disturb the schooling of the children,'' he said. "I think my wife is a little tired of packing and unpacking.

"We're married 20 years and she's probably packed and unpacked a dozen times.'' It was normal for representatives of American companies interested in investing in Bermuda to visit the Consulate for information, Mr. O'Neill said.

"I would highly recommend to any American company that wants to come to a stable, secure area, that they would have to go a long way to find something more stable than Bermuda,'' he said.

BERMUDA `IMPORTANT' -- Mr. Joseph O'Neill, the new acting US Consul General, said he wanted to kill any rumours that the US Consulate was closing or downsizing.