Development agency chiefs in the North are about to bid for around £280m of extra Government cash over the next three years, it emerged last night.

Bosses of the two regional development agencies (RDAs), One NorthEast and Yorkshire Forward, yesterday met Chancellor Gordon Brown and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at a Downing Street summit.

The meeting, also attended by Trade Minister Dick Caborn, came after this week's announcement that the nine English RDAs will have £500m more to spend a year by 2003/4 or about £1bn over the next three years.

And One NorthEast chairman John Bridge, who was at yesterday's summit, signalled that he would be seeking about £150m of extra funding over the next three years.

Dr Bridge and top executives of the Newcastle-based agency will firm up their plans for funding bids at a meeting on Monday.

But he told The Northern Echo that the North-East was "a very disadvantaged region" which should be a ''top priority'' for the new cash.

"We have to make the best case for the North-East," he said.

Yorkshire Forward, the RDA charged with revitalising the economy of North Yorkshire, has already said it is hoping for a £130m boost over the next three years as result of Tuesday's comprehensive spending review.

At yesterday's summit, the Chancellor and Mr Prescott confirmed that the RDAs were to get much greater freedom on how their money was spent to boost jobs and productivity.

Mr Prescott said: ''The job of the RDAs is to get the regions firing on all cylinders. They have made a good start and I want to build on their success.''

Dr Bridge said that the agencies' separate funding streams were to be slashed from 11 to two, giving the RDAs much greater local flexibility.

He said the financial settlement would make his RDA's target of creating 90,000 jobs over ten years ''a little easier"