More than half the former MG Rover workers have either found new jobs or signed up to training programmes, Tony Blair has been told.

Officials from the Rover Task Force were in Downing Street yesterday for a summit with the Prime Minister.

They revealed that 1,250 workers are back in work, 1,100 have started training and a further 1,200 are booked on to training courses which have yet to begin.

The Task Force is to compile a detailed report on its efforts to help Longbridge staff and local suppliers, which will be used by Ministers as a model for dealing with future industrial crises across the country.

The hour-long meeting was attended by Mr Blair and cabinet Ministers including Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, and Ruth Kelly, the Education and Skills Secretary, as well as Birmingham MP Richard Burden (Lab Northfield).

The Task Force had saved 3,800 jobs in the supply chain by subsidising staffing costs for suppliers as they developed new business plans, he said.

Loans of £1.5 million have also been provided to suppliers.

Nick Paul, chair of the Task Force and Advantage West Midlands, said: "I was in the first Rover Task force five years ago and one of the key issues was the need to encourage suppliers to diversify away from MG Rover.

"The benefits of the programmes we ran to help them do that are clearly evident today.

"Suppliers have moved into other areas such as aerospace, and that has helped."

He added: "We explained to the cabinet members present that we have learned an enormous amount during this crisis about how the various agencies work together, such as Job Centre Plus or the Learning and Skills Council.

"There have been some issues such as bureaucracy, or glitches that have arisen.

"There are lessons here for dealing with other major crises in the future."

The Task Force had made good progress in the 66 days it has been running, he said. But he added: "We shouldn't under-estimate the fact that we have a lot of work still to do."