Motivated by effective low energy models of string origin, we discuss the neutrino masses and mixing within the context of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model supplemented by a U(1) anomalous family symmetry and additional Higgs singlet fields charged under this extra U(1). In particular, we interpret the solar and atmospheric neutrino data assuming that there are only three left-handed neutrinos which acquire Majorana masses via a lepton number violating dimension-five operator. We

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... the general form of the charged lepton and neutrino mass matrices when two different pairs of singlet Higgs fields develop non--zero vacuum expectation values and show how the resulting neutrino textures are related to approximate lepton flavor symmetries. We perform a numerical analysis for one particular case and obtain solutions for masses and mixing angles, consistent with experimental data.