The Government has lowered its demands for new housebuilding in West Sussex.

Whitehall has cut the number of new homes it wants built over the next five years.

But the latest figures are still well above targets originally suggested by regional planners, who fear the county will not be able to cope.

Ministers propose that 2,890 new homes a year should be built in West Sussex.

The figure is still higher than the 2,270 suggested by the South East Regional Planning Conference, known as Serplan.

Senior West Sussex councillors and officers were meeting today to discuss the latest figures.

There was a storm of protest two years ago when Environment Secretary John Prescott ordered more than 12,000 extra homes to be built in the county.

The council lost a High Court bid to challenge the figures.

Councillors claim the extra homes will swallow up vast areas of countryside and ruin gaps between many towns in West Sussex.

In East Sussex, the revised proposal is for 2,290 new homes, compared with Serplan's suggestion of 1,873.

Across the South East the number of homes which will be built has also been scaled down.

Ministers originally proposed 43,000 more homes a year for the region until 2016 to meet the needs of a growing population.

Mr Prescott has now revised the figure to 39,000 a year until 2006.

Ministers have accepted it would be "neither feasible nor necessary" to insist on 43,000 homes a year before 2006, but after that this figure is expected to be back on the table.

Housing Minister Nick Raynsford said: "We are quite confident this is the right way forward."