TORY MPs are planning to raise the future of RAF Fylingdales in the Commons tomorrow, after the Ministry of Defence appeared to rule out any prospect of missiles being sited there.

A senior official has written to the North York Moors National Park Authority to say there are no plans for "future major developments" at the RAF base on the moors, and such developments are "unlikely."

Jenna Durrant, of the MoD's Directorate for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Policy, went on to say: "There is no planned change in the usage of the Fylingdales site as a radar establishment, and the MoD cannot foresee circumstances in which it would wish to propose any major new development at the station that is not commensurate with its current role."

The letter was delivered to authority chief executive Andy Wilson on Monday, just a day after the Independent on Sunday claimed that Downing Street had given an agreement in principle to the Pentagon to base interceptor missiles in silos at Fylingdales.

It said the matter had been discussed at a meeting in Washington in May, but the Government had asked that no formal request should be made until after the General Election.

The MoD told the Evening Press that no formal approach had been made to the UK to base missiles at Fylingdales.

Mr Wilson said it would be hard after the authority had received such a definitive letter for the Government to subsequently turn round and announce it wished to site missiles at Fylingdales.

Tory MP John Greenway, whose Ryedale constituency takes in Fylingdales, said there now appeared to be two possibilities - firstly that the report was wrong, or secondly that the Prime Minister had reached an agreement with America that some MoD officials were unaware of, as part of his relationship with President Bush.

He said the Government's record over Fylingdales did not inspire trust. It had said for years there were no plans to extend the base's radar system for use in America's Son of Star Wars programme, before suddenly announcing that it had received such a request from America, and then announcing that it had agreed to the move.

He said that he or other senior Tories would quiz Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on the missile allegations in the Commons tomorrow.

Updated: 10:37 Wednesday, October 20, 2004