The Government is to meet half the costs of policing the recent Labour Party Spring Conference, it was revealed last night.

The Home Office is to give Northumbria Police - which spent nearly £3m on security - £1.44m to cover the additional expenditure the force had to meet.

Hundreds of delegates attended the three-day conference at the Sage music centre, in Gateshead, earlier this month, which was seen as a launchpad for Labour's General Election campaign.

Police had 1,600 officers on duty and closed roads and bridges in a security crackdown on the Quayside areas of Newcastle and Gateshead - an operation that was later praised by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Protestors were prevented from getting too close to the delegates and were only allowed to gather on the opposite side of the River Tyne.

However, Fathers4Justice managed to breach the heavy security cordon by climbing on top of the Tyne Bridge to hold a 16-hour protest.

Today, the Northumbria Police Authority revealed that the Home Office would be giving the force grants totalling £1.44m - half the £2.8m expenditure - to meet the cost of road closures, extra security cameras and installing security barriers.

Northumbria Police will meet the remainder of the bill, including police salaries and overtime payments.

The announcement comes after opposition politicians expressed concern that North- East taxpayers would be paying for a conference, which was party political.

Councillor Mick Henry, chairman of Northumbria Police Authority, said he was delighted with the settlement.

He said: ''This payment effectively pays back every scrap of additional expenditure which Northumbria Police Authority was required to make to provide the level of security needed for this prestigious event.

''Not only that, it has enabled us to invest in a range of new or upgraded specialist equipment for which we have not had to pay a penny."