TENS of thousands of British jobs hung in the balance last night as MG Rover tried frantically to secure its future with the Chinese.

The company appeared doomed yesterday when negotiations with the Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC) appeared to stall.

In a final effort to save the deal, John Towers, chairman of MG Rover's parent company, Phoenix Venture Holdings, flew in to take charge of the talks.

Last night, it appeared that his intervention had convinced the Chinese delegation to return to the negotiating table.

However, despite Mr Towers' claim that the deal was back on course, it seems there is still much to be done.

But he said his company and SAIC remained committed to a successful outcome.

He said: "Members of both companies have been working non-stop over the past week to create outcomes to our complex joint venture agreements."

However, back home in Britain, sources close to the negotiations remained pessimistic.

One told The Birmingham Evening Mail: "MG Rover has no money."

The company is believed to be critically short of money and dependent on a £100m short-term loan from the Government.

But SAIC is demanding guarantees that Rover has enough money to weather the storm for at least two years. By then, Chinese officials believe the business will be making enough to become self-sufficient.

The fate of 6,000 jobs at the MG Rover Longbridge plant, in Birmingham, and 20,000 others in the supply chain, now hinge on agreement between the sides.

A team of senior officials from the Department of Trade and Industry has been in China since Friday trying to secure a deal.

Sources close to the talks said they had stalled because MG Rover's finances were worse than SAIC or the UK Government had previously thought.

But Mr Towers said Rover had been providing every assistance, including extensive personal commitments to enable the deal to go ahead.

Mr Towers and his fellow directors have been under pressure to come up with a new plan to make sure the partnership went ahead, including committing more money.

A UK Government offer of a bridging loan of £100m remained on the table to keep MG Rover solvent while negotiations continued.

Union officials were anxiously waiting for news from Shanghai and remained hopeful that the negotiations would continue.