PRISON officers were tonight claiming victory against the Government after calling off their first strike for 68 years ahead of fresh pay talks.

The move ended a tense stand-off between the Prison Officers Association (POA) and the Government following a day of strike action which brought chaos to jails across the country.

The POA said that Justice Secretary Jack Straw had offered talks over the pay dispute, which had persuaded the unions executive to call off the strike.

However a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said Mr Straw had already arranged to meet the unions leadership on Friday before he knew about yesterdays walkouts.

Between 900 and 1,000 prison officers in the North-East alone are thought to have walked out yesterday.

The POA said there had been solid support for the strike across the region, although a handful of striking prison officers at high security Frankland jail, in Durham, offered to go back to work after a plea for help by management.

About 170 staff there were on strike, but about 15 volunteered to work with the agreement of the union.

A POA branch meeting had been called during which prison bosses asked union reps for volunteers to return to work because of the nature of the inmates held there.

They include al Qaida bombers Omar Khyam and Dhiren Barot and until recently two of Pc Sharon Beshenivskys killers, Muzzaker Shah, 26, and 20-year-old Yusuf Jama.

Frankland POA branch chairman Steve Jackson said: "We fully appreciate this is a particularly dangerous jail because of the people held in there."