TONY BLAIR will meet Durham Police's chief constable, Jon Stoddart, next week to discuss the potential loss of 300 officers.

The crisis cuts are deemed necessary to prevent Mr Blair's local force going almost £9m into debt.

It is not the first time the men have met over the issue, but The Northern Echo has learnt that this time, senior force executives will also meet Whitehall officials.

In a leaked internal memo, Mr Stoddart told 2,500 staff the force needed to make cuts of £8.8m over the next three years to balance its budget.

He said: "We are currently facing a difficult task. We need to develop our plans to reshape the force without any precise indication of what monies we can expect as we prepare our budget for 2007-8 and beyond.

"I have been pressing the Home Office, on an almost daily basis, for early answers to the financial business case we submitted at the end of October, and two significant meetings are due to be held next week between the force executive and senior Whitehall officials and the Prime Minister himself.

"I remain optimistic these talks will have a positive outcome."

Mr Stoddart said managers had drawn up an 800-page report last month with 90 proposals to make savings.

He said: "While we were able to place these proposals in some order of priority, we were unable to make any final decisions in the absence of the awaited Government guidance on our future budget and funding."

Mr Stoddart reminded staff that the force was not in debt and was lobbying the Home Office and politicians to raise extra money locally through the police element of council tax.

He said Durham Police's prudent accounting made it the leading non-metropolitan force in the country in terms of providing value for money.

Mr Stoddart said: "Ironically, because of our prudence, we may now have to shed up to 300 police officer jobs and opt instead to employing a further 200 police staff, excluding police community support officers, to save money."