Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott today said he was confident the forthcoming referendum on the proposed North-East regional assembly will be a success - despite the ongoing controversy over all-postal voting.

However, he said that he could not be so certain that people in the North-East would actually vote for a regional assembly, adding: "We have got to make the case. If you can make the case, you have got to convince the doubters.''

Speaking at the Royal Mail's depot in Gateshead at the launch of the Government's information leaflet explaining the referendum, Mr Prescott declared himself happy that there would be no repeat of the problems which dogged the all-postal ballot for June's European elections.

An Electoral Commission inquiry into allegations of vote-rigging and missing ballot papers is due on August 27.

Proposed ballots on setting up elected assemblies for the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside were postponed following the allegations - although critics that it may have been caused by fears of an embarrassing No vote.

Mr Prescott said: "The same complaints were not made in the North-East where there were no such allegations and there is a longer track record of all-postal voting.

"I couldn't see any reason or justification for holding up the referendum - the people of the North-East are leading the way."

Although there were few serious problems in the North-East in terms of delivery, several thousand voting papers destined for Tyneside were delayed at the printers.

The first test of the Royal Mail's ability to cope with the referendum ballot comes over the next three weeks, when copies of the Government's leaflet, Your Say, will be delivered to 1.2m homes across the North-East.

Ballot papers for the 1.9m eligible voters will be delivered in the days after October 17 to be returned ahead of the November 4th polling day.