Rhodri Morgan: 'Not a fruitful day'

A final decision is expected in the next fortnight and could come as early as next week.

"We are leaving no stone unturned, but it's not looking good," said Mr Morgan following the series of meetings.

Mr Morgan was joined by assembly economic development minister Mike German for a key meeting with Corus chief executive Sir Brian Moffatt.

Sir Brian explained the company was facing huge excess capacity in its strip mills division and was losing large sums of money on what was produced.

We are leaving no stone unturned, but it's not looking good

Rhodri Morgan, Welsh Assembly First Minister

Mr Morgan said Sir Brian had sought to persuade them that no final decision had been made on the future of steel jobs in Wales.

The First Minister said he had been willing to discuss a "modest" aid package to help Corus through its present difficulties but the company would not talk about any grants.

Mr German confirmed there had been no progress on the support package drawn up by the assembly for Corus.

Sir Brian said that an improvement in the value of the euro in recent weeks had been "very helpful" to Corus.

Mr Morgan also said Corus was not blaming the currency situation for all its problems. Much more fundamental was the decline in the market for steel.

But Mr Morgan said Corus had also indicated they were ready to pay the costs of cleaning-up the Llanwern site, which it has been estimated will run into hundreds of millions of pounds.