CIVIL servants could be ordered to take control of Burnley Council if talks to form a new ruling executive fail.

Party leaders had today still not been able to agree on a deal for setting up a ruling body following last week's resignation of the Labour administration.

But senior figures at the council today said if Burnley continued to drift without leadership, John Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister could step in to sort out the mess.

A crunch meeting on Friday to find a solution to the council's leadership crisis ended in stalemate after the British National Party stormed out when other party leaders said they would not work with them.

The far-right party have now said they will not vote at tonight's full council meeting and the absence of their crucial six votes could pave the way for Labour to regain power.

Following June's elections, Labour held power with a minority administration with 21 members compared to the opposition's combined 24.

However, Labour party bosses said today they would not be prepared to form an administration on the back of tacit support from the BNP.

The former ruling party will vote down any proposals for a coalition executive to share power put forward by the Liberal Democrats - a move that will leave the council in limbo.

The leadership was plunged into chaos last week when the Labour administration resigned - rather than share power with the LibDems. And because the parties cannot work together, the council is being left without any direction.

Talks, minus the BNP, will resume to try to break the deadlock, although senior figures estimate it is a race against time before the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister steps in.

Councils by law must have a leader and a ruling body such as an executive and the Government would not be prepared to let Burnley drift for more than a month.

Peter Kenyon, a former member of the executive and a senior Labour councillor, said: "If the BNP abstain from the vote or do not turn up that does give us a majority, but we have decided an attempt to form a ruling administration would be a mistaken course of action as it relies on the BNP."