BUSINESS leaders and politicians across the region toasted the deal of the decade yesterday after steelmaker Corus secured the future of more than 6,000 jobs in the North-East.

Corus announced an agreement that will see its Teesside operation supply a consortium of overseas companies for the next ten years.

The move ends nearly two years of uncertainty for 1,700 workers at the Redcar plant and helps safeguard about 4,500 more jobs in the region, which form part of the steelmaker's wider supply chain.

The North-East business community and political leaders clamoured to heap praise on the Teesside plant - whose survival was thrown into doubt last year when restructuring left it surplus to the company's requirements.

Redcar MP Vera Baird said the deal meant a booming steel industry had been secured in the region for years to come.

Alistair Arkley, chairman of the Tees Valley Partnership, said: "This is the best possible seasonal bonus, not just for steelworkers and their families, but for the whole of the Tees Valley."

Bosses at the Redcar site, known as Teesside Cast Products (TCP), said the future was now in their own hands.

Managing director Colin Muncie said: "This is great news for everyone.

"There has been a huge amount of work put in here in the last year to prove we could stand on our own two feet, and this announcement has vindicated that hard work."

The consortium, made up of steel traders and producers from Switzerland, Italy and Mexico, will take three-quarters of the plant's output. It will also pay out about £35m towards improvements needed at the plant.

Staff at the steelworks said they were "buzzing" after a long period of uncertainty following a restructuring move last year, which left the Teesside operation cast adrift from the main Corus business.

Roland Gell, 40, a blast furnace worker, said: "I've worked here for 24 years and it's been up and down all the while, but this time we really thought the site was going to close.

"So you can imagine how everyone is feeling now. We're just buzzing from the news."

Corus had planned to cease taking steel from the site in 2006, when TCP was expected to survive on its own in the global market.

Under the new deal, 74 per cent of production will go to the consortium and the rest will be taken by Corus's other operations.

Alan Clarke, chief executive of regional development agency One NorthEast and head of the Corus Task Force - which was set up by public-sector bodies in the wake of previous job losses in the industry - said: "The Redcar plant plays such a major part in the local economy, which will benefit significantly from the enhanced job prospects today's announcement brings."

He said the task force had ensured the plant's predicament was kept high on the agenda of Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

British Steel merged with Dutch firm Hoogovens in 1999 to form Corus.

After the merger, the company racked up losses totalling £1bn and axed thousands of jobs. But a huge rise in the price of steel on the worldwide market changed the company's fortunes.

Corus chief executive Philippe Varin said: "I am pleased with this agreement. It is in line with our UK restructuring objectives and I look forward to a successful relationship with the consortium members."