GWENT'S most deprived areas could be eligible to receive a multi-million pound boost from National Lottery funds.

Culture secretary Chris Smith announced the creation of a new Communities First Fund, to earmark £150 million of lottery funds to meet the needs of disadvantaged communities across the UK, yesterday.

The initiative - which confusingly, uses the same name as the Assembly's separate 'Communities First' project to regenerate deprived areas - will see the lottery board liaising with the Assembly over which areas will benefit.

Provisional figures show that the Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly county boroughs receive less than average lottery awards per head of population. Both should be targeted by the scheme.

By comparison, Newport will see two landmark buildings largely paid for by Lottery cash - the new riverside theatre and arts centre, and the National Velodrome at Spytty Park. "We want to see Lottery money really benefiting local communities and we want to distribute this money to a wide range of projects spread fairly across the country," Mr Smith told a press conference, yesterday.

He said some deprived areas had not been getting their fair share of lottery finance. Under the new scheme 50 areas around the UK would get a better deal.

The Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Blaenau Gwent, Ed Townsend, said that Labour are talking about £7.5m in extra lottery funds for Wales.

"This establishes the principle of allocating funds by need. While any extra cash is welcome, perhaps Labour should be looking at doing the same with the bulk of the real money that comes to fund essential services in Wales," he said.