FORMER Welsh secretary Ron Davies has accused the government of Wales of neglecting his constituency in the rush to aid Llanwern and Ebbw Vale.

Mr Davies claims the Caerphilly borough area has lost more jobs than Blaenau Gwent in the past 12 months - yet will not be receiving anything like the rescue package being targeted at the areas hit by Corus job losses.

Mr Davies told the Assembly's economic development committee: "We have lost 3,000 jobs in manufacturing. If we had lost them in one blow we would have a rescue package. But because they are across a series of announcements we're not treated with the same priority as Newport and Ebbw Vale.

"We need to have parity for the valleys communities - at least equivalent to Ebbw Vale. Workers in Caerphilly have also lost jobs in the Corus announcement, but we're not benefiting from the rescue package."

There have been rumblings of discontent from senior Caerphilly councillors that the emerging strategic framework for regenerating South East Wales concentrates almost exclusively on Newport and Blaenau Gwent, and ignoring Caerphilly county borough.

Council leaders have arranged to meet first minister Rhodri Morgan on December 4 to discuss their concerns.

Mr Morgan defended his administration. He said: "Job losses and job gains happen all the time in every area of the world. But sometimes you get external events that need special provision because of the local impact or size. We decided the biggest events on the radar screen were foot-and-mouth and Corus, so we made special provision for them.

"Ron is quite wrong to say funds are being diverted from Caerphilly to meet these costs. The money comes from unspent money at the end of the year."

But Mr Davies said the job losses in Caerphilly were probably the worst in Wales.

"If you fund emergency packages out of end-year underspend you are re-allocating resources which were originally allocated for the whole of Wales to a specific area. Really this should be met from additional treasury funding," he said.