BP wants to build a gas-fired power station on the site of its Baglan Bay chemicals complex as part of a proposed regeneration project in an area of high unemployment.

Moves to save miners' jobs could hit others

But the Government is expected to announce this week proposals to safeguard the deep-mined coal industry.

Those plans are expected to include a crackdown on the building of gas-fired power stations, according to a Financial Times report.

The move will cause huge disappointment in South Wales, where BP has been praised for its efforts to replace jobs lost through the run-down of its Baglan Bay site.

It will also provide ammunition for critics who claim the Government is protecting miners' jobs at the expense of employment elsewhere in the economy.

BP has described the FT report as "speculative". A spokesman said: "Until we know what the Government is actually proposing to do, it is impossible to comment."

Experts say the Government's efforts could protect about half of the 5,000 coal industry jobs threatened by the expiry of subsidised contracts with the electricity generators.

But gas power station developers says thousands more jobs would be lost.