More than 200,000 financial services jobs could be moved overseas by 2008 with a potentially devastating impact on Brighton and Hove's economy, unions and politicians warned.

Finance workers and employers were holding emergency talks to discuss ways to stop multinational companies transferring jobs from Britain to developing countries.

Major employers Norwich Union, American Express and Barclays are among firms to have opened call-handling centres in Asia, prompting fears of major UK workforce cuts.

The trade union Amicus has predicted that up to 200,000 UK financial services jobs will be moved offshore in the next four years. The figure is based on estimates by consultants Deloitte & Touche that eight million Western jobs will move East by 2008.

Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper warned of dire consequences for the city's economy.

He said: "After Brighton and Hove lost many of its manufacturing jobs in the Eighties and early Nineties the financial services sector, and especially call centres, became a lifeline for the local economy.

"It's worrying there is this trend for offshoring which could have a severe effect."

Mr Lepper said he feared callers could be provided with an inferior service by employees based thousands of miles away.

Call centre workers are paid between £3,000 and £5,000 in India, compared with £15,000 to £18,000 in the UK.

Earlier this month Foreign Secretary Jack Straw provoked union protests by saying: "If British companies benefit from working with Indian service providers in Bangalore and elsewhere, then Britain as a whole benefits."

Amicus members and representatives of companies including Legal & General, Aviva, Prudential and Friends Provident are meeting to agree a regional strategy to tackle unequal pay and outsourcing.

Mr Lepper and Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner have backed the union's campaign against outsourcing and have been involved in talks ahead of today's meeting in London.

Aviva, which trades as Norwich Union, revealed last December it would relocate 2,350 clerical and call centre jobs to India, with the prospect of at least 500 job losses in Britain.

About 40 jobs have been lost at its office in Worthing, which employs more than 1,500 people.

American Express, which has its head office in Eastern Road, Brighton, opened a call-handling centre in India in August 2002, fuelling staff fears of job cuts among 3,000 Brighton workers.

Amicus national secretary David Fleming, who lives in Brighton, said: "Most companies have contracted some offshore work and, given Brighton has a certain amount of financial companies, one could say there's already a threat to employment there."

He praised Surrey-based Legal & General for publicly stating it would not export UK jobs abroad.

Discussions about how to tackle the concerns will also involve the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership and Sussex Enterprise.

Tony Mernagh, chief executive of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, warned: "While we are probably just as concerned as Amicus about offshoring, in an open, global market it's very difficult to hope you can just stop it.

"But there is an increasing backlash against offshoring.

"It doesn't suit every call centre but we're still waiting to see what the long-term impact will be on Brighton and Hove."

The partnership is conducting its own study into call centres in the city.