TAs will train closely with their full-time equivalents

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told the Commons on Thursday the "re-balancing" would involve some units closing, with new ones created.

The phased changes are aimed at making the TAs more relevant to today's world.

It means 1,600 extra engineering staff and 400 more intelligence and air corps but fewer in infantry and signalling.

There will be 910 fewer infantry posts and 120 cut from the signalling role, Mr Ingram announced, saying TAs in future would train more closely with their full-time colleagues.

'Force for good'

Among the new TA units to be formed is an Army Air Corps Regiment to support the Apache attack helicopter regiments in the regular Army, to be based in Bury St Edmunds.

A new Royal Engineer Regiment - 72 Engineer Regiment Volunteers - will have its headquarters in Gateshead.

Mr Ingram said the changes would be phased in over a number of years and for many volunteers, little will change.

It would, he said, ensure the TA "continues to be a force for good".

Rather than a rebalancing, this looks like a further web of cuts Gerald Howarth, Conservative

"If we don't restructure and rebalance, then I think we would have a problem because I think there would be an incoherence between what we're now demanding in terms of future infantry structure and future Army structure and the TA would feel somehow second class," he told MPs.

But for the Conservatives Gerald Howarth questioned the reduction in infantry and in specialist units such as medical staff, saying it was "genuinely debatable" whether the government could carry out its Iraq operations without TA support.

Since the invasion of Iraq, more than 13,500 troops have left the TA, around 600 a month, compared to about 150 previously, he said.

The TAs have been supporting regular forces in Iraq

"Whilst there are some welcome changes announced today, we should be under no illusion that the government is relying too heavily on the Territorial Army as substitutes for an adequate standing Army and today's announcement illustrates that fundamental weakness.

"Rather than a rebalancing, this looks like a further web of cuts," he added.

For the Liberal Democrats, Nick Harvey welcomed Mr Ingram's announcement as a "broadly sensible measure".

He asked the minister whether he was confident that he would be able to preserve current levels in the TA or whether "further over-tasking" could make the situation worse.

And he called for regular reports to MPs on TA deployments.