change to Bermuda's gay sex law, a spokesman said yesterday.

Mr. Mark Herdman, who until recently was the Bermuda desk officer at the FCO in London, told The Royal Gazette : "As we see it, it is something which must be looked at in Bermuda.'' But a US activist said Bermuda and Great Britain could both face a "public shaming'' before the international community unless they acted to legalise gay sex.

Mr. William Courson said he would wait "at most another month'' for the Governments of Bermuda or the United Kingdom to act before he approached the United Nations and the European Commission on Human Rights.

Under the European Convention on Human Rights, Bermuda is legally obliged to change the section of the criminal code which makes sex between consenting adult males illegal, Mr. Courson told The Royal Gazette .

And if Bermuda refuses to act, Great Britain is obliged to do so on its behalf, he claimed.

"I'm a little disappointed in the tenor of debate'' on the issue, the New Jersey accountant said. "No one has dealt with this as a legal issue. That really is what it is.'' A Government that keeps such a law on its books, a Police officer who enforces it, a Crown counsel who prosecutes the case, and the magistrate or judge who hears it are "in fact themselves engaging in illegal behaviour,'' he said.

Under the rarely-used law, gay men who engage in sex in private face prison sentences of up to 10 years.

Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan said in a letter to Mr. Courson that Government had no plans to amend the criminal code. Community and Cultural Affairs Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons has challenged a backbencher or Opposition member to introduce the motion.

Mr. Courson said he received replies from Mr. Herdman to two letters he wrote to UK Foreign Secretary Mr. Douglas Hurd, but he was not satisfied.

He will wait no more than a month before taking a two-pronged approach to step up the pressure, he said.

He will petition the United Nations under Resolution 1503 alleging a "gross violation of human rights,'' he said. "There are very few governments in the world who are not responsive to at least the prospect of a public shaming.'' He will also appeal to the European Commission on Human Rights, he said. The question of the Government of the United Kingdom acting on Bermuda's behalf "has not been addressed up to this time,'' Mr. Herdman said in a November letter to Mr. Courson.