Senior Government officials have promised to continue urging the release of North Yorkshire arms dealer Peter Bleach from an Indian prison - despite the Indian Government's failure to respond to their pleas.

Calls for action made by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Home Secretary Jack Straw to the Indian Government last year have still not received a response.

But a Foreign Office spokeswoman said senior officials continued to press the matter, though they denied national newspaper reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair had got personally involved.

Bleach, an ex-St Peter's School pupil from Fylingthorpe, near Whitby, was jailed more than five years ago for his part in smuggling arms into West Bengal.

Latvians who were jailed with him were pardoned after intervention by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Straw first contacted the Indian Government last year, with Mr Cook writing in December, and again in January urging a response.

None has yet been received.

Letters from Bleach's mother, Oceana, who is in her 80s, have also gone unanswered.

Richard Stansfield, a friend of Bleach's, said: "It seems quite extraordinary that the Indian Government has not yet responded to Robin Cook's letter.

"Equally, I was amazed and saddened that letters from Peter's mother, sent in October directly to President Narayanan's personal secretary, received neither the courtesy of a reply nor any acknowledgement that they had arrived safely and yet, somehow, they were leaked to the Indian press.

"Mrs Bleach was extremely upset that such important people could treat her private correspondence to them in such a discourteous way."

He thought an intervention by Mr Blair could force the Indian Government to respond.

The Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The High Commissioner in Delhi has raised the issue several times, and it will continue to be raised at senior levels until we get a response."

Bleach was alleged to have parachuted ammunition and weapons into West Bengal.

Updated: 11:46 Thursday, April 12, 2001