Pontypridd director Cenydd Thomas says any loan must be scrutinised

"As a club that's gone through a lot, including the demolition of the Warriors, we've had to fight to keep ourselves afloat," Thomas said.

"We all feel we were hard done-by and this will add insult to injury if they were given greater consideration.

"It seems to me the Scarlets have been using money they didn't have."

Thomas said if the WRU is to make the Scarlets a special case for help then it must be done under intense scrutiny.

"It's not the first time the Union has come to the aid of the Scarlets in the last decade, is it?" Thomas added.

"As a rugby man I would feel very aggrieved if they were given greater consideration than other areas, including our own in particular, have been given in the past.

The eyes of Welsh rugby are focussed on this one, this isn't one that's going to be signed behind closed doors Pontypridd director Cenydd Thomas

"But if it's from a pure business standpoint then it's for the Scarlets to justify - but all the eyes of Welsh rugby are focussed on this one, this isn't one that's going to be signed away behind closed doors."

WRU chief executive Steve Lewis says the governing body must try to help Llanelli Scarlets to safeguard the interests of the Test team.

The Scarlets have warned they could fold because of financial troubles.

"I don't think anybody involved in professional rugby thinks it's in the best interests of Welsh rugby to go down to three regions," Lewis said.

"That is not in the best interests of our international side, our sponsors or broadcasters - four is rock bottom."

A delay in the Scarlets' planned new stadium, which would see current home Stradey Park sold off for housing, has seen the region warn it could go bust.

The Scarlets want to build 450 houses on the Stradey Park site, as part of plans for a new 15,000-seater stadium at Pemberton.

But the Stradey application was called in by the Welsh Assembly Government in July, just before it was due to go before Carmarthenshire County Council's planning committee.

Scarlets chairman and benefactor Huw Evans has said the delay will cost them �2m.

WRU chairman David Pickering has already indicated the Union is considering a bridging loan to help the Scarlets, a plan which Lewis says will be looked at carefully.

It's one of those situations that is a lose-lose for us WRU chief executive Steve Lewis

"We have to get involved, but how we get involved and what the outcome will be is something we have to consider," Lewis added.

"We'll have to satisfy our board and our board will have to satisfy our bankers.

"Hopefully, working together with the Scarlets and with the politicians we can find a way through this."

The Scarlets are the most westerly of the four Welsh regions, with the Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and Newport Gwent Dragons strung out along the M4 corridor.

Despite the Ospreys' Liberty Stadium base sitting within 12 miles of Llanelli, Lewis says the loss of the Scarlets would have a serious impact on rugby in west Wales.

"There's a huge population in that part of Wales, I don't think people quite understand how much west of Llanelli there actually is," Lewis said.

"We have to provide those people with an opportunity to watch professional rugby and to give the youngsters in that area an aspiration.

"If that is removed, then that is a serious problem for Welsh rugby."

Lewis realises the irony of that statement for former supporters of the Celtic Warriors regional side, which folded in 2004.

The WRU did not consider a financial rescue package for that amalgam of Bridgend and Pontypridd, leaving many rugby people in the valleys north of Cardiff effectively disenfranchised.

Pontypridd and its surrounds now come under the umbrella of the Blues, although the Cardiff-based side has struggled to win hearts and minds from Sardis Road north.

"I can see that people from that part of the world are not going to be extremely pleased if the Union were to loan funds to the Scarlets," Lewis said.

"But I can see people in west Wales not being happy if we don't loan funds to the Scarlets, so it's one of those situations that is a lose-lose for us."

However, Thomas revealed that Pontypridd RFC has benefited from a WRU loan, which the club is still paying back, and says the Scarlets must also pay back every penny if the Union bails them out.

"The Scarlets find themselves in this pickle," Thomas said.

"Did they assume this development would go through without objections?

"It's very controversial when we know we've been involved in a development plan that was not passed."

In June an application to develop a food retail store on the site of Pontypridd's Sardis Road ground was turned down by the Welsh Assembly.