THE eight-day strike followed accusations that the Government was behind a last-minute intervention which "wrecked" the chance of a peace deal.

Talks throughout the night were on the verge of achieving a dramatic deal but, just three hours before the strike was due to start, the Government intervened.

Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said it was with a sense of "incredible regret" that the strike would go ahead.

He said his union's executive had decided to suspend the strike after a new pay deal was tabled by employers which would have given firefighters a pay rise of 16 per cent achievable over the next year.

But, for the third time in the long-running dispute, the Government had intervened, saying it wanted to study the details of the proposed deal but could not do so before 9am, Mr Gilchrist claimed.

The walkout will last for eight days and is set to be followed by two further eight-day long stoppages starting on December 4 and December 16.

Hopes of a deal had been rising last night after talks between Mr Gilchrist, union president Ruth Winters and assistant general secretary Mike Fordham and three senior officials from the employers side.

They ended at 2.30am and Mr Gilchrist returned to a nearby hotel where his executive had been waiting, saying he was waiting for a phone call from the employers before a decision on whether the strike would go ahead would be made.

At 6.10 am, Mr Gilchrist received the call on his mobile phone from Phil White, one of the local authority negotiators saying that the office of Deputy Prime Minister wanted to see details of the proposed deal.

The union said they would wait until 7.30am.

Mr White called shortly before then to say that Mr Prescott's office could not see the document before 9am.

Following a brief meeting of the executive, it was decided that the strike would go ahead.