Foreign Office officials have dismissed reports that jailed arms dealer Peter Bleach, formerly a prominent Conservative campaigner in Southend, is on the verge of being released from prison in India.

They said they were still waiting for an official response from the Indian Government to calls by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook for him to be set free.

However Sir Teddy Taylor - MP for Rochford and Southend East, said he understood that Bleach's release may coincide with a planned visit to India by Prime Minister Tony Blair in January.

He said: "I am cautiously optimistic and I have been in regular touch with the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary who made the formal request for his release. I think there has been a huge injustice in this case."

Pressure for Bleach's release has mounted since India pardoned five Latvians jailed for life with him earlier this year.

In February, Bleach, the former Tory party chairman for St Luke's ward who worked on the 1987 general election campaign with Sir Teddy, was convicted of "conspiracy to wage war against the state of West Bengal" by smuggling weapons into India.

Local police said the cache was intended for an Indian revolutionary group.

Bleach, 48, has always maintained he was working for the British security services and that MI5 knew of the operation.

However he remains imprisoned in a Calcutta jail where he has been for the past five years.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "These reports are pure speculation.

"The Foreign Secretary wrote to Indian external affairs minister Jasmant Singh on December 5 asking for Mr Bleach to be released on the grounds that all the others involved have been released.

"We are not condoning his activities but we are simply asking that he be treated in a non-discriminatory fashion."

He added: "We have not had a response back from the Indian authorities yet but Mr Singh has said he would ask the Government to re-examine the case."

Jailed - Peter Bleach, formerly a senior Tory campaigner in Southend, who is still in prison in India despite the release of five Latvians jailed for life with him

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.