All the education boards are struggling to meet budgets

The board said next year's budget from the Department of Culture fell short of its needs by �1.3m.

A decision on the cuts will be taken at a full meeting of the board next month.

The libraries earmarked for closure are Old Park, Whitewell, Ligoniel, Ballygomartin, Sandy Row and Ballymacarrat.

Ballyhackamore has been named as a potential closure.

Board chairperson Hilary Sloan said the public would be consulted but that cost cutting was necessary.

"We are short of funding to run libraries," she said.

"We also have to look at the libraries service perhaps, rather than buildings. We're talking about the closure, or possible closure, of buildings as opposed to a library service.

"We need to remember that what we're looking at or trying to look at is to provide a really good library service for the people of Belfast."

The Belfast and the South Eastern Boards are currently the subject of a statutory enquiry into why they have overspent their budgets.

Meanwhile, the suspended head of the Belfast Education and Library Board has now extended his High Court action to challenge the legality of the decision.

Initially, chief executive David Cargo applied for an injunction to compel the board to reinstate him.

However, on Tuesday his barrister questioned the board's power to impose a suspension when he was not the subject of disciplinary proceedings and had been told that he had done nothing wrong.