TOP brass last night pledged to tackle a training crisis that has left the Army unable to deal with a rush of recruits since September 11.

The Infantry Training Centre at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, has become the Army's key centre for teaching new recruits, replacing five other centres around the UK.

A surge in interest in the services since the terrorist attacks on the US last year and a recent recruitment campaign has seen a surge of applications. This has led to an embarrassing bottleneck because there are not enough barracks to go round.

And with the British Army stretched to breaking point across the globe, MPs say the forces are losing out on good candidates.

The problem is reported to have become significant enough to have prompted a meeting between Army chiefs and the commanding officers of infantry regiments around Britain.

Tory MP Patrick Mercer said yesterday that four young men from his Nottinghamshire constituency had tried to join the Sherwood Foresters, only to be told they would have to wait five months for places at Catterick to become available.

Mr Mercer said: "The regiment is furious.

"When these lads came forward, all of them looking for good employment immediately, the recruiting officer had to tell them he couldn't offer them a place in training until at least September.

"Two of them were relatively content with that but the other two have decided they will go and seek employment elsewhere."

However, a spokesman for Catterick's Infantry Training Centre insisted the log jam was temporary and should improve within weeks rather than months.

"We are expecting a new accommodation block to be open within weeks, not months," he said.

"In a way, we have been hoisted by our own petard; the impact of the attacks on September 11, the remarkable success of the recent recruitment campaign and the temporary lack of accommodation have combined to create the bottleneck.

"But, once the new block opens in the next few weeks, we would anticipate a rapid improvement."

The Army's head of operations and plans for training and recruitment, Col John Ibbotson, said: "Phasing out the old system and transition to the new has inevitably resulted in a slight temporary bottleneck.

"Plans we have put in place will start to eat into the delay over the next few weeks, and should ensure we are back on track within the next three to four weeks.