THE task force set up in the wake of massive job losses at Corus Teesside two years ago has met to discuss the plant's future.

The group intends to draw up a business plan for the survival of steelmaking on Teesside.

It also wants to examine a diversification strategy for the supply chain and to consider ways in which Corus can make better use of its land in Redcar.

Dr John Bridge, chairman of the Corus Task Group, said: "There are no quick-fix answers to this problem, but we now have clearer and more focused long-term aims that we firmly believe can result in positive outcomes for Tees Valley and the North-East.

"It is hoped that initial phases of the work agreed today will be completed by September of this year."

The committee was formed in 2001, when Corus announced 7,000 jobs were to go across the UK - 1,100 on Teesside.

It was reconvened this year following Corus's announcement on April 29 that it no longer needed Redcar-produced steel for internal use and saw the operation's long-term future relying on selling products on the open market.

The task force's second sitting since the announcement came on the same day that it was confirmed Teesside steel will be used in the reconstruction work at Ground Zero, in New York.

Almost 7,000 tonnes of Corus products from the Lackenby Beam Mill will be used in building the first structure to be erected at the site of World Trade Centre, destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

The last building to collapse in the attack will be the first to be replaced.

July will see the shipment of 4,000 tonnes of sections from Teesside Beam Mill for the new 7 World Trade Centre, and a further 3,000 may follow.

The shipments will make up half the total requirement for the building.

The new 7 World Trade Centre tower, designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, is already taking shape on the Manhattan site. The building will be 52-storeys or 228 metres-high.

The predominately glass-and-steel building, which will cost $700m (£420m), will house 158,000sq m of office space, as well as a Con Edison electricity substation in the basement and lower storeys, which is needed to restore downtown Manhattan's power capacity.

The building is expected to open in late 2005.

Tony Futo, Teesside manufacturing manager, said: "Everyone at Teesside beam mill is pleased to be involved in rebuilding the 7 World Trade Center. It is a very high profile project."