TORY MPs were furious last night when it emerged that a new "super-regiment" for the whole of Yorkshire may be based outside the county.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon ducked calls to pledge that the infantry force - to be formed from the merger of regiments in Richmond, York and Bradford - would retain local bases.

And he refused to guarantee that historic cap badges would survive - saying only that the regiment would recruit in Yorkshire and retain "golden threads of identity".

The Conservatives said the lack of detail in the long-awaited army shake-up overshadowed the good news that the historic names of regiments would survive.

The York-based Prince of Wales's Own will form the regiment's 1st Battalion, while the Green Howards, based in Richmond, will form the 2nd Battalion.

But John Greenway, Tory MP for Ryedale, said: "This will be seen as a shabby announcement once the penny has dropped.

"While there is some relief that the famous names will be retained, Geoff Hoon would not say that cap badges will be retained. If they were to be, he would have said so.

"And the real concern is that, if the new regiment is not even based in Yorkshire but somewhere many miles away, the local links will erode.

Challenged in the Commons, Mr Hain said MPs would have to "bear with him" to learn the new base of the Yorkshire Regiment.

And A Ministry of Defence spokesman told the Echo it would be 2006 at the earliest before any decision was made.

The MoD first signalled in the summer that all stand-alone regiments would be merged because they were no longer viable for 21st century fighting.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Hoon insisted the new-look infantry would be "more deployable, agile and flexible force", with less heavy armour and artillery and more specialists.

He added: "The move to larger, multi-battalion regiments that these changes bring about is the only sustainable way in which to structure the infantry for the long term."

But the Tories warned the mergers would make it harder to recruit and that - with four of Britain's 40 regiments to be axed altogether - the army will be dangerously overstretched.

There was also anger over England's "second class treatment". The names of the historic Scottish regiments will be retained with greater prominence.