THE Queen's Lancashire Regiment will retain its county identity after months of campaigning by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

A senior military official confirmed today that the word "Lancashire" will be kept in any new, merged North West regiment.

He said that there was no chance of single battalion regiments such as the QLR being retained in the review of future military structure.

And he said it was right to assume that any merged regiment to the region would contain the proud name of the county, of which the Queen is the Duke of Lancaster.

It is expected that the QLR, itself the result of the amalgamation of several other famous county regiments, will be merged with the Carlisle-based King's Own Royal Border Regiment and the Liverpool-based King's Regiment.

There has been extensive speculation about the name of the three-battalion unit. Favourite possible titles include the Lancashire and Border Regiment or the Royal Lancashire Regiment.

But a senior military official close to the review being conducted by Army Chief of Staff General Sir Michael Jackson said: "I think it is fair to assume that the word Lancashire will be in the title.

"There will be a regiment the other side of the Pennines including Yorkshire in the title and we don't want to restart the Wars of the Roses.

"These are the recommendations of the Executive Committee of the Army Board and we expect ministers to accept them."

The senior official said the needs of the Cold War had been replaced by the need for flexible forces who could be sent to places like Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan at the drop of a hat.

With a Northern Ireland Peace Process being successful, the need to base four battalions in the Province had ended.

He said there would be a reduction by four battalions in the total Army strength.

Short to medium term, the traditions of the three regiments merged into the new North West unit would be retained.

He said: "You will be surprised how much we can do to keep the cap badge, traditions and mess dress of the individual regiments in the new set-up."

A source close to the QLR said: "There has never been any argument about the inclusion of the word Lancashire.

The argument has been about all the other things that go with it."

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph launched its own campaign to save the identity of the county's only surviving regiment August.

More than 2,000 coupons from readers backing our campaign, have been received.