A UNION heavyweight, representing thousands of workers at BAE Systems, visited the firm's Warton site this week.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of manufacturing union Amicus, said the future of BAE Systems jobs at Warton and Samlesbury sites depends on the Government signing up to the next stage of the Eurofighter project.

The union chief fears a further delay or cut back in the 232 RAF plane order will cause a gap in production and potential job losses for thousands of people. He claims that although the government has agreed in principle to go ahead with the next tranche of the Eurofighter project, the four partner nation governments -- Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK -- have not formally signed the order to commission the next batch of planes.

But bosses at the aerospace giant said the Government has already got the cash in place for the deal and remain confident that the next phase of the Eurofighter project will be rubber stamped. A spokesman for the company said: "The Government has already released the funds and we are already working on the second tranche."

It comes as the company, which employs hundreds of people from Preston and South Ribble, plan sizeable job losses over the next five years in its Air Systems division.

Mrs Simpson said: "We are lobbying Government at the highest levels to try and resolve the contract issue before this becomes critical for the 9,000 highly skilled workers at Warton and Samlesbury and the thousands more jobs in the north west that depend upon these sites."

Last week Preston MP Mark Hendrick met defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, and had talks about speeding the process along.

The Labour MP said: "There has been a delay because of changes in specifications, causing problems in design and production, but the second tranche will go ahead."