VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- (AP) -- The Navy concluded its exercises on Vieques
 Island on Wednesday after three days of bombing that prompted protests and
 ended with scores of activists arrested and four Navy personnel reported injured.

 ``Ships and aircraft of the USS George Washington Carrier Battle Group
 successfully completed essential combat training prior to deploying in the
 Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf this summer,'' the Navy said in a statement.

 The move could mean an end for now to the stream of activists who have been
 sneaking under a chain-link fence and onto the Navy base on the island. The
 activists hope to impede the exercises and eventually force the Navy off the island
 altogether.

 But it does not end the controversy over the base. Puerto Rican political leaders
 who met Wednesday with President Clinton said they would raise the issue. One
 of the politicians said she would press Clinton to hold a promised referendum as
 soon as possible on whether to remove the base.

 Vieques, a populated Puerto Rican island, is also the site of the Navy's Atlantic
 Fleet training ground. Exercises on Vieques had stopped in April 1999 after two
 500-pound bombs were dropped off target, killing a civilian security guard and
 sparking protests laced with anti-American sentiment.

 But the shelling began again last weekend -- this time with inert, or nonexplosive,
 bombs and shells.

 The Navy said 183 people were arrested for trespassing since the exercise began,
 most of them Puerto Rican Independence Party demonstrators who invaded the
 range Tuesday, some cutting the chain-link fence, others simply lifting it up to
 crawl under.

 The first reported violent confrontation in 14 months occurred Tuesday: The Navy
 said fishermen lobbed 12-inch metal bars that injured two sailors at sea and that
 a video recording of the confrontation was turned over to the FBI. One of the
 fishermen, Yabureibo Zenon, denied the charge.

 The Navy's Lt. Jeff Gordon said two other Navy personnel also were injured. One
 had some fingers broken Saturday while detaining a protester inside the range,
 and another suffered a minor leg injury trying to free a Navy boat from a reef after
 the confrontation with the fishermen, he said.

 As trespassing protesters were rounded up Tuesday, shelling was delayed for 45
 minutes, the Navy said. Then fighter jets screamed overhead and thuds and
 booms could be heard. Among the last to be arrested was independence activist
 Enrique Pesquera, brother of pro-statehood gubernatorial candidate Carlos
 Pesquera.

 Five months ago, Clinton negotiated an agreement with the Puerto Rican
 government allowing the Navy to resume training using nonexplosive ordnance.
 Clinton also promised a referendum in which Vieques residents would choose
 whether to evict the Navy or allow it to stay and resume live bombings.

 Clinton's meeting Wednesday with the leaders of Puerto Rico's major political
 parties had originally been called to discuss the U.S. territory's ultimate status.
 But the Puerto Rican politicians said they would raise the Vieques issue.

 San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon, gubernatorial candidate for Puerto Rico's
 pro-commonwealth party, said she would ask Clinton ``to use his authority to
 resolve the Vieques situation immediately'' by halting all training and allowing the
 referendum to go ahead as soon as possible.