A UNION official says an agreement could be reached today to prevent an eight-day strike by bus drivers in Bradford.

Crunch talks between transport firm First and Unite union representatives took place yesterday in a bid to avoid a repeat of the walkout that happened in April.

An agreement in principle was reached on May 29 between the two parties after two days of talks, but an argument over some of the wordings of the proposals remained unresolved.

Mohammad Taj (pictured), branch secretary for Unite in Bradford, said an agreement was expected last night before being presented to the union's disputes committee today.

Mr Taj, who has worked as a bus driver at the First depot in Bowling Back Lane for 41 years, said: "We have made good progress. We have put an agreement together on the agreed words.

"It looks like we have found a formula to sort it out but until we have had a ballot of the membership, we won't know the outcome."

The wordings proposals will go before the disputes committee today at about 1pm and, if approved, will be put to a vote on Friday.

"We are hopeful they will be acceptable," said Mr Taj.