MINISTERS are unlikely to decide whether to spend £40 million upgrading rail links at Southampton Docks for several weeks.

City MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead are urgently pressing the government to fund improvements on the railway into the port.

It would protect jobs and investment by enabling the Port of Southampton to handle more sea freight, they claim.

In May, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling told the MPs to sit tight until after Chancellor Gordon Brown's Comprehensive Spending Review, which sets out government budgets for each department.

But after this week's spending review - which gave the Transport Department a settlement rising from £10.4 billion this year to ££12.8 billion in 2007-08 - there was still no news.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "We are still looking at it.

"There are a number of projects on the table from all over the country and we will look at them on a case-by-case basis."

He added: "There is no fixed timetable for an announcement, but it is unlikely to be for several weeks."

Mr Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test, and Southampton Itchen MP Mr Denham are arranging meetings with Mr Darling and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in a bid to secure extra funding for the rail link.

The meeting comes in the wake of the government's controversial decision to reject Southampton-based Associated British Ports' ambitious plan to build a new £600 million container terminal on wetlands at Dibden Bay.

Transport ministers admit that decision means upgrading the freight line between Southampton and the West Midlands is a "high priority".

Mr Whitehead has said £40m to upgrade the rail link into Southampton Docks is a "drop in the ocean" compared to the spiralling costs of many projects.