Train drivers 'will support strike'

Further strike action on the Tube drew nearer today as 3,000 train drivers finished voting in a ballot that is expected to endorse industrial action.

Votes will be counted tomorrow with announcements later or most likely Thursday from the two most powerful unions, the RMT and Aslef, which ordered the ballots in a long-running dispute over pay.

Aslef has already warned it will call for a 48-hour strike. With both unions acting together it will bring the network, used by more than three million passengers a day, to a virtual halt.

Further negotiations are to take place between London Underground and the unions this afternoon but a breakthrough is not expected. Steve Grant, chief negotiatorand district secretary for Aslef, said: "We believe we will get a mandate for industrial action." He said LU had "reneged" on a deal agreed last October.

A senior RMT source said he believed their members would also back the strike. The unions, by law, must give seven days' notice of industrial action. That means the strikes could begin any time from 4 March.

Union negotiators believe LU is delaying any possible settlement to see the strength of the vote. An LU spokeswoman declined to comment on the likely outcome of the strike vote, adding "we are still talking".