PLANS to bring 200 asylum seekers to Hartlepool are to be re-examined.

The move comes after the town's MP, Peter Mandelson, held talks on Thursday night with Lord Rooker, the asylum and immigration minister.

The deal had been pushed through without consultation with Hartlepool Borough Council.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "There is not going to be any large-scale dispersal of asylum seekers in the centre of Hartlepool, and before any such move takes place in the future the local authority will be fully consulted."

Council leader Arthur Preece said the influx of unemployed single men could damage the work being done to regenerate the town centre.

He said: "We are pleased the government has acknowledged there is a need to re-examine this."

He said the council was not anti-asylum seekers, but merely looking for more discussion on the issue.