Bosses of a North-East police force will later this month appeal for government help to meet the costs of a controversial corruption inquiry.

Cleveland Police Authority chairman Ken Walker and Chief Constable Barry Shaw will meet Home Office Minister Charles Clarke on November 29 to ask for more cash to pay for the Operation Lancet investigation.

The move comes amid a hint from the Home Office that help could be available in ''exceptional circumstances''. The meeting, requested by Cleveland police chiefs, comes after the authority claimed that it was likely to have to pay out £3.75m for Lancet and other ''special inquiries''.

News of the meeting emerged after Labour MP Ashok Kumar tabled a parliamentary question demanding to know what discussions had been going on about spending on Lancet between the police authority and the Home Office. Mr Clarke told Dr Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, that the meeting would cover ''various matters related to the policing of Cleveland''.

Mr Walker made clear last night that the meeting, also to be attended by authority vice-chairman Russell Hart, would be used to press for overall better funding.

He said: ''This will be an important opportunity to press home to the Government the need for Cleveland to be seen and judged as a metropolitan force.'' The force had been denied a share of a £15m fund for policing in rural areas, as well as being excluded from a £20m allocation for metropolitan areas to tackle robbery, said Mr Walker.

The meeting would also be used to press for Cleveland's officer recruitment to be speeded up from present plans to take on 74 extra officers by March 2003.

He disclosed that, in a letter from Mr Clarke, the minister had recognised the ''significant burden'' placed on forces by major investigations such as Lancet. He had said that the Government was prepared to consider extra financial help in ''exceptional circumstances''.

Mr Walker said that the authority had consistently made clear ''our concerns over having no control over the conduct of investigations such as Lancet, yet having to meet the costs''.

Mr Walker said: ''We shall be pressing hard for the Government to recognise the strength of our case for assistance.'