Local decision making is to remain key to the agency

In a statement to parliament the enterprise minister said he supported restructuring plans but wanted to ensure local decision-making remained.

The jobs agency, which is in financial difficulty, had intended to replace the network with local advisory boards.

Unions have warned that the restructure could lead to up to 100 job cuts.

Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen also confirmed the agency would use money from next year's budget to plug a �30m deficit.

However, opposition parties criticised the minister for failing to explain how the bail-out would affect next year's budget.

The executive needs to do more than merely hand Scottish Enterprise a life-line and appoint KPMG to find out what happened Jim Mather MSP SNP

At the start of the month it emerged that the economic development agency had overspent its budget for the current financial year, putting local business services under threat.

Scottish Enterprise had said it would need to eat into next year's budget to protect business services like the Business Gateway, which offers help and advice to businesses at a local level.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, which represents 500 SE staff, had accused senior managers of "mismanaging" the budget.

Mr Stephen told MSPs the financial difficulties were partly a result of a "deliberate strategy" to encourage new project proposals in each local enterprise area and from the identification of a growing number of projects of national significance.

Overall welcome

The minister also said the employment agency Careers Scotland would be moved out of the agency's control.

Scottish Enterprise said overall it welcomed the minister's statement, which also included plans to ask accountants KPMG to carry out an independent audit of the organisation.

Scottish National Party enterprise spokesman Jim Mather said: "The executive needs to do more than merely hand Scottish Enterprise a life-line and appoint KPMG to find out what happened.