THE Government last night turned up the heat ahead of Friday's proposed eight-day firefighters' strike by ordering the immediate call-up of reserve appliances across the country.

Nick Raynsford, Minister of State for Local Government and the Regions, has demanded that fire authorities release reserve appliances for use by servicemen alongside Green Goddesses during future industrial action.

The move follows a frantic round of talks yesterday between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, aimed at heading off further strike action over the deadlocked pay dispute.

It had been hoped that the strike could be averted after the FBU described the talks as "very constructive".

But the decision to call up reserve appliances was later attacked by union officials as a "highly-provocative move".

Fire authorities in the region have agreed to the Government's requests to release some of its reserve fleet for emergency cover.

There are 27 reserve and training appliances in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade last night agreed to release four of its nine red fire engines in its reserve fleet. The appliances are to be made available with immediate effect.

County Durham and Darlington Fire Authority will release two red fire engines from it five-strong reserve list and Cleveland Fire Brigade said it was still in talks with the Home Office, but expected that a proportion of its reserve engines would be made available.

John Doyle, of Cleveland Fire Brigade said: "We are in communications following the request. All fire authorities may be obliged to release the engines.

"It is recognised the Green Goddesses have certain limitations and they want something which is better. We are not going to get into a situation where they take over all fire appliances - at best these are Red Goddesses.

"Principally, we have accepted that a proportion of our reserve fleet will be released but at present we do not know how many."

It is not known whether North Yorkshire Fire Authority, which has seven reserve appliances, has agreed to follow suit.

Steve Gregg, regional chairman of the FBU, said the union was powerless to stop the move.

He said: "It is the fire authorities who own the engines, so it is up to them what they decide to do.

"I think this will be met with disappointment by firefighters. It is highly-proactive action. The Government seems to want to take every section of the fire service and break it.

"They are hell bent on provoking us and bringing us to the ground. They want to destroy the fire service."

The Home Office has admitted that Army personnel, who will be deployed to use the engines in the event of another strike, are not trained to use the equipment. Last night, a spokeswoman said some Ministry of Defence staff are now in training.

Union and employers' negotiators will meet for private talks today but there is still a big gap between the FBU's 40 per cent claim and a rejected 11.3 per cent offer over two years. Formal negotiations are expected to resume tomorrow.

FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist said the way the Government had acted had been a "national disgrace" after it emerged that ministers effectively blocked a 16 per cent pay offer in the summer.

"It is now time the Government stayed out of this dispute and allowed the employers to negotiate without their hands tied behind their backs," he said.

"If this were allowed to happen, there could possibly be an end to this dispute."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said last night: "One thing has got to be very, very clear - we cannot pay more money out unless it is tied to changes within the fire service."