A farming union has called on the Welsh Assembly's rural development minister to resign over unpaid subsidy payments.

Members of the Farmers Union of Wales have demanded that Mike German should go because millions of pounds are still owed.

The assembly government, however, has blamed a new computer system for causing problems, and has given an assurance that efforts are being made to solve the situation.

Awaiting payment : Eifion Huws

The Conservatives in the assembly have side with the union, tabling a censure motion against Mr German over the issue, claiming he has failed "to effectively administer the agriculture support payment scheme".

FUW members are adamant that Mr German should be held accountable for the problems with late payments, which cover a wide range of subsidy schemes.

According to the union officials, thousands of Welsh farmers are experiencing cash-flow worries because of the delays.

Eifion Huws, vice-chairman of the FUW's milk and dairy produce committee, is one of the farmers waiting to be reimbursed under an environmental initiative.

His 400-acre mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm near Holyhead lies in an Environmentally Sensitive Area, so he qualified for a 60% grant towards the cost of re-roofing an old granary barn.

He said the assembly's handling of the subsidy payments was in serious disarray, and he had one message for the man charged with rural development in Wales : "Mr German, please resign," he said.

"I understand the situation is so bad that people have had to be drafted in on weekends to work on the computer system software," he said.

Chairman of FUW's Ceredigion branch Ian Lloyd has called in his local AM Elin Jones to investigate why he has not received his suckler cow payment, which he applied for last July.

Mr Edwards is owed �20,000

"My phone hasn't stopped ringing with other FUW members angry and complaining bitterly about their late payments," Mr Lloyd added.

"It is worrying that, during the most expensive time of the year for farmers, with extra costs associated with wintering livestock and buying in additional feed, a huge number of payments have been delayed.

"The delays are unacceptable because they are causing severe cash flow problems.

The union has called on the assembly to give urgent attention to righting the situation.

The problems have affected a wide number of schemes, including the Sheep Annual Premium, the Less Favoured Area Supplement for hill farmers, the Beef Special Premium Supplements, Arable Aid, farm woodland grants, and organic payments.

Censure

Plaid Cymru has decided not to support the Tories censure motion, which is set to be debated on Tuesday 4 February.

Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM, who sits on the Rural Affairs Committee, said he will call for a committee inquiry into the problem with payments of farmers' subsidies.

He said: "What we want to do is resolve the issues surrounding the payments.

"An inquiry is the way to do that. If we get an inquiry, I don't see what we gain from a Censure motion."

Payments

On Tuesday night, Mr German said he was doing as much as he could to speed up the payments.

He said: "What I am trying to do is to ensure that we are putting in every effort we can with the most number of civil servants and support we can get, to make sure we get the payments out as quickly as we can, given the circumstances.

"We're now running faster than we've done before - and that's the good news - the bad news is that it is not as quick as I would like it to have been and I'm sorry about that."