forces from the West End next year, its commander said yesterday.

Cdr. Tony Steiner said Malabar was carrying on with preparations for the spring, when the US Naval Annex is expected to close.

In the absence of the annex, the base would handle all NATO alliance warships, including American ones.

Cdr. Steiner's comments came after the forming of a special Government committee into what to do with ex-military land if it is returned to Bermuda.

Committee chairman the Hon. Charles Collis says US defence chiefs are reviewing all their options, and no official word on the future of the annex has reached Government.

But Cdr. Steiner said: "The US is definitely reducing the annex to caretaker status by April next year, and at some point they will decide how they are going to do that and when and if they hand it back to Government.

"They might just have the caretaker people in there for 20 years. They have the lease on it until 2040.'' He said plans to make Malabar a combined US-UK base were now "on hold'', given uncertainty over US policy during the presidential election.

"At the moment we don't intend to share the base with the Americans, but they will use it as they do now. It would mean a bigger role for us, and we hope and expect the US will help us.'' Cdr. Steiner said he was not expecting extra manpower or facilities to handle the increased traffic.

The National Liberal Party has attacked the composition bases committee as "biased''.

NLP spokeswoman Ms Cheryl Pooley said only two of the committee members announced so far were "recognised environmentalists''. The other six were business people.

"The NLP would like to have seen a wider cross-section of Bermudians, with perhaps at least one young person and definitely more persons who have the environment at heart,'' she said. The statement made by Mr. Collis that the lands should be `self-supporting' sounds the alarms of business-related plans.

"What the NLP wishes to make clear is that any beaches on these leased lands be given back to the people of Bermuda.'' The NLP would be holding meetings with West End residents about the annex and the Canadian Forces base, she said.

Cdr. Toney Steiner.