FIFTEEN supermarkets in the region could be closed or sold if the proposed takeover by Morrisons of Safeway goes ahead.

The stores are on a list of 65 nationwide compiled by the Competition Commission as part of ruling on the takeover bid.

The hit-list includes five Safeway stores on Teesside, three in North Yorkshire, two in County Durham, four on Tyneside and one in Sunderland.

The Competition Commission ruled that there cannot be a Morrisons and Safeway store within a ten-minute journey of one another, should a deal be struck between the two companies.

That means supermarkets such as Safeway, in Darlington, will have to be closed or sold to a rival that does not have a store within the drive-time band.

An alternative would be to keep the store in Victoria Road and sell off one of the Morrisons supermarkets in either North Road or Morton Park.

Details of the list come a week after Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt accepted Competition Commission recommendations to give the go-ahead for Morrisons to bid for Safeway, and block the way for rivals Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

A spokeswoman for the bid team at Morrisons said it was most likely the stores would be sold, but further talks would be taking place over the next few weeks on their future.

She said: "This is a pretty definitive list of stores to be disposed of and we are in the process of negotiating the necessary undertakings with the Competition Commission."

The spokeswoman refused to be drawn on whether a timetable had been set for the stores' disposal and stressed that a deal for Safeway had yet to be completed.

A Safeway spokeswoman said: "The Competition Commission's report indicates that if Morrisons is to make a renewed bid for Safeway, they must agree to sell 53 stores from a pool of 65 stores identified in the report.

"However, it is not yet possible to identify the 53 stores to be divested, as, in certain cases, the divestment of one store will allow another to be retained.

"In addition, Morrisons could choose instead to divest its own store in the relevant location.

"Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco and other food retailers may bid for the store required to be sold. The Office of Fair Trading will approve the purchases of the divestment stores."

If Morrisons does clinch Safeway, it plans to convert all of the Safeway stores larger than 1,400sq metres into the Morrisons brand.

Stores smaller than that would continue to trade as Safeway but offer Morrisons' own-brand products.

The whole rebranding process was expected to take about two years, using teams of staff made up of existing Safeway and Morrisons employees.