Mary Williams, who recently succeeded John Cashen as Treasury's chief financial officer, said: 'We are beginning to look actively at how we can change perceptions. I think in the financial press the perceptions are okay. It's the other press, the tabloid and the like, that we really have to work at. 'It appears to make no difference to some people in the tabloid press if you have the words tax haven and/or offshore attached to you, immediately you are seen as suspect, whatever the rights or wrongs.'

Predecessor John Cashen said: 'The UK tabloids don t really do their research properly. They tend to act on information that they've got on file from some years ago and they tend also not to take too much notice of the facts.' He sees the problem partly in resource terms: 'There needs to be, not just within Treasury but within the whole of government, a greater acknowledgement of the importance of international events. We have to accept that the international spotlight is going to be more on the Isle of Man, and government has got to get its administration geared up to deal with that.'

He said key senior staff needed to be relieved of the 'bread and butter jobs' to free them to focus on global issues affecting the Island s economy. 'We're going to see even tighter regulations, we're going to see further pressures from the international bodies on anti-money laundering.'

Mr Cashen also thinks that the island needs to communicate better with the UK legislature: 'One of the biggest problems I think is getting the truth across to UK politicians. There was a general election in the UK back in June and some of the new members don't perhaps understand the position of the Crown dependencies.'

Mr Michael Gates, who heads the international services division within the Treasury, said the government's communication strategy was currently being reviewed. 'What I think the events of September 11 indicate is that there is a much wider audience that knows nothing about offshore but nevertheless can influence how the Island is perceived and how in fact other countries react to it.'

He said there was a need to broaden government communication beyond financial journalists to include political and general news editors and correspondents. 'They don t deal with financial services but they have a view of financial services which is probably one like the Mirror's view. It would tend to reflect views that were common 20 to 30 years ago.'