THE National Assembly will be told today that £1 billion of EU money has only created 10,500 jobs in deprived areas like the Valleys and West Wales.

The Objective One cash was supposed to create 68,000 jobs in the Valleys - including areas of Gwent like Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Caerphilly - and West Wales, but now there are claims that the money is being wasted.

Independent analysts were presenting their findings to a committee at the Assembly today. Economic development minister Andrew Davies will come under pressure to defend the administration's handling of the money.

The Argus has learned that over five times as many Objective One projects were approved in Cardiff - than in deprived Blaenau Gwent.

Blaenau Gwent MP Llew Smith, who represents many of those who were supposed to have benefited from the money, accused the Assembly of failing to use the money properly.

Mr Smith said: "I wouldn't allow the Assembly to run a kindergarten let alone be responsible for this kind of money. The UK government did very well to win the money and they should have responsibility for spending it.

"If the Assembly would spend a little less time discussing building themselves a vastly expensive new building and constitutional issues and a little more time on the issues that actually affect people's lives they might get somewhere.

"They say that 10,500 jobs have been created but I would question whether they would not have been created anyway."

Alun Cairns, Tory AM for South Wales West, said: "The central theme is that the jobs that were promised are not being created."

The Argus has learned that since Objective One funding started, 105 projects were approved for Cardiff, while just 20 were approved in Blaenau Gwent, 16 in Torfaen and 26 in Caerphilly.

Cardiff has got the bulk of its projects through the university, which has a regional remit, but Mr Cairns said: "The wealthiest areas are getting more projects approved than in the poorest areas."

But an Assembly spokesman today defended the Objective One project saying that over time the money spent would yield more jobs.

The spokesman said that the 10,500 "gross new jobs" are only a proportion of those that the current projects would create.

"With 770 projects now up and running, the 26 per cent of gross jobs (10,500 of the 68,200 target) are only a proportion of the predicted jobs that will be created. "We are well on target to meet the objectives," adding that although this report was billed as a mid-term review, money would actually be given out until 2009.