WELSH Secretary Peter Hain is facing pressure to persuade the government to transfer thousands of civil service jobs from London to Newport.

With Chancellor Gordon Brown already signalling that more jobs should be shifted to the regions, Mr Hain is staking the claim for Wales.

And Newport West MP Paul Flynn has called for the government to move jobs to Newport in a bid to boost the Gwent economy and offset the danger of call centre jobs being lost to Asia.

Mr Flynn pressed Newport's case at Welsh questions in the Commons. He said: "The record of employment by this government has been a great triumph for Wales.

"It follows the success of the relocation of civil service jobs to my constituency over the years. We are looking for further jobs to be relocated there."

Mr Flynn said Newport's attractions were heightened by the fact that it already has the Passport, Patent Office and the National Statistical Office. He added that Newport's good road and rail links to the south east and Heathrow Airport also make it attractive to perspective employers and employees.

Mr Flynn however expressed disquiet about the threat to call centre jobs. "There is one major concern and that is the future of the call centre jobs and the possibility they may be siphoned off from Wales to the ancient sub continent," he told Mr Hain.

"Is this the fire in the basement of the Welsh economy?" Mr Hain acknowledged there was a danger of jobs being lost to India but said the healthy Welsh economy meant there are other jobs that would replace them.

"Wales has the highest level of employment for decades and the lowest level of unemployment for 28 years," he told Mr Flynn.