UNION leaders representing 40,000 Merseyside local authority workers will meet today to decide whether to call off a planned nationwide strike over pensions.

It follows a last-minute breakthrough aimed at averting industrial action.

The country's biggest trade unions including Unison, the Transport and General Workers Union, Amicus, the GMB and the Public and Commercial Services union are expected to decide not to go ahead with Wednesday's 24-hour walkout which threatened widespread disruption to council and government services across Britain.

The deadlock was broken on Friday when deputy prime minister John Prescott offered a "fresh start" to consider its controversial plans to increase the retirement age for workers in the public sector from 60 to 65.

Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson conceded there had been "misunderstanding and suspicion" over the reforms and said the Government wanted to resolve the issue rather than get the policy wrong.

The offer of fresh talks was warmly welcomed by union leaders, who are expected to recommend to their executives that the strike, which would involve more than 1.5m council workers and civil servants around the country, should be called off.

However, some union activists will be unhappy at what they will regard as a move to avoid embarrassing Labour in the run up to the general election.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said he was "hopeful" that the strike would be called off.

"We are certainly optimistic. We want to have full and open discussions and negotiations, and work together to achieve agreement on these issues," he said.

Leaders of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents 290,000 civil servants, will meet today to decide their next move.

If the 24-hour strike went ahead it would force some schools to close due to an absence of classroom assistants and other support staff. The DfES could not confirm how many schools would be forced to close if the strike went ahead.

A Transport and General Workers' Union spokeswoman said John Prescott's announcement was a good "basis for negotiation".

She said: "This is something that is an acceptable offer.

"We are confident that this move is a good basis for calling off Wednesday's action."

A Unison spokeswoman said: "We were very pleased with the breakthrough in the talks and the decision on Friday."

She added that some schools, public gardens and leisure centres would be affected if the strike went ahead.