INDUSTRY Minister Jacqui Smith yesterday pledged the Government would do all it could to help secure the future of car making on Wearside.

During a tour of the Nissan factory in Sunderland, the minister said she would "provide it with support wherever we are able to in order to keep this plant and jobs".

Ms Smith was responding to questions about whether Nissan would award the North-East plant, Europe's most productive factory for the past seven years, the contract to build the new Almera.

Thousands of jobs depend on Nissan Sunderland keeping its contracts. But Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn has expressed concerns in the past that Britain is not in the euro and the effect that had on trade with the Continent.

Ms Smith also used the visit to issue a rallying cry for Government, business and the community to "harness the region's enormous talent and desire to boost its economic development".

She said: "The North-East has had to cope with massive industrial change over the past few decades, but there is now a real sense that the region is on the cusp of turning around its fortunes to become a major economic force."

The minister also met manufacturing leaders at the Engineering Employers Federation.