weekend, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The meeting is Bermuda's highest face-to-face contact with the new Clinton Administration, and helps establish a relationship with one of its most influential officials.

Sirt John and Lady Swan lunched with Mr. Bentsen and his wife Beryl Ann while they were on a two-day vacation at Coral Beach Club.

Sir John confirmed the meeting yesterday, saying he hoped it would help introduce Bermuda to the new administration.

"The object of our luncheon was to develop a familiarity with the Administration so that when a problem occurs we can pick up the phone and talk with someone who knows us,'' he said. "We want to develop a relationship whereby we have access to an individual when we have a valid reason for doing so.'' The meeting with the Administration's top economic officer comes four months after Mr. Clinton took over the White House.

Bermuda has been trying to get a private meeting with the new president, but his hectic and crammed schedule has so far prevented it.

The Government is particularly concerned about warding off two possible threats to its economic well-being that could emerge from Clinton legislation: Increases in taxes on business handled by Bermuda-based companies and the closure of the US Naval Air Station.

Sir John said he was careful not to use the informal luncheon to push a shopping list of Bermuda concerns onto the Secretary's plate.

"He was on vacation,'' the Premier said. "And there are areas of concern to us that he would not have an interest in. The Bases, for example, are not in his sphere. They're for the Department of Defence and the Navy. We are doing work in those areas.'' Sir John said a key point he tried to get across to Mr. Bentsen was Bermuda's vulnerability to legislative action taken by the US.

Mr. Bentsen has been a US Senator from Texas since 1971 and was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1987 until 1992. In 1988, he was the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President.

Mr. Bentsen's legislative skills are considered critical to successfully selling the President's economic plan to the US Congress.

On Thursday night, he emerged from the White House with the President shortly after Congress passed the plan, a crucial victory for the Administration.l