Gordon Brown has delivered a boost to Bradford sufferers of an asbestos-related condition.

He confirmed he is "determined" to take action against a decision which stopped sufferers getting compensation.

The Prime Minister said the Government will publish a consultation soon on pleural plaques - areas of thick scar tissue which form in the chest lining and diaphragm following inhalation of asbestos fibres.

Last year, insurance firms - facing a potential £1bn payout - won a Law Lords ruling that they were not liable because pleural plaques had no symptoms and did not, therefore, constitute a disease.

The ruling was described as "outrageous" by trade unions and many Labour MPs, but the Government said the ruling would not be overturned.

But the PM said today: "Asbestosis and mesothelioma are terrible diseases, and all of us who have seen the effects that they cause know that we have to do more to help the victims of those diseases. On pleural plaques, we are looking at the matter.

"We are determined to take some action."

Mr Brown will meet a delegation of MPs, including Bradford North MP Terry Rooney, who has been campaigning to overturn the decision.

Mr Rooney said: "I will be there demanding we change this sooner rather than later. I am highly delighted that Gordon has a team of people looking at this and it shows the pressure we have put on is getting results and I will not be satisfied until the decision is reversed."

More than 350 people in the Bradford district died from asbestos-related cancer between 1981 and 2000, and the number diagnosed with the disease is expected to rise annually until 2015.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "As the Prime Minister indicated, we will publish a consultation document soon. People who fear they have been exposed to dangerous substances like asbestos, or who have been told they have pleural plaques, are bound to experience anxiety.

"So we take this issue, and the concerns that people have expressed about the recent House of Lords judgment, very seriously indeed. We are listening carefully to representations about this matter and actively exploring how people who have been exposed to asbestos, and have pleural plaques, might be supported."