Brighton is bidding to host the Labour conference for the third year in a row.

The conference, one of the biggest staged by the seaside, is coming back to the Brighton Centre after a three-year gap on September 24 for a week.

It is also booked in for the following year.

Now Labour has asked Brighton to prepare a bid as well for 2002.

There is no guarantee that Brighton will get it as there is fierce competition from other resorts to stage the prestigious event.

Head of city marketing Amanda Shepherd said: "They have asked us to bid for 2002. We are always keen to stage the political conferences."

She added that dates were being kept clear for most years in the next decade in case Labour or the other major parties wished to make bookings.

Ms Shepherd said it was early days but Brighton would prepare the best bid possible.

This year's conference is expected to attract more than 20,000 delegates and visitors. It is worth £5 million in direct business to the town. But the benefit of having Brighton's name in the headlines and on TV for a week is also reckoned to be worth millions.

Only a few resorts have a big enough hall and enough top hotels to cater for such a large conference. Among them is Bournemouth, which hosted the event last year.

But Blackpool, a traditional meeting place for Labour over many years, has been ruled out for the forseeable future by party chiefs because of its poor hotels and ambience.

With Cabinet ministers and top politicians in town, more than 3,000 people will have to go through security checkpoints to get to their homes during this year's conference.