MERSEYSIDE is to be reimbursed for the staggering cost of policing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Liverpool, the Daily Post can reveal.

The decision is a major U-turn for the Home Office which this summer refused to fork out for the event, despite handing over cash to neighbouring Lancashire for policing a visit the same day.

A full-scale security operation was put in place, with 1,295 officers posted across Liverpool to ensure Ms Rice's safety when she visited the city in April.

Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe last night welcomed a letter from Home Secretary John Reid's department confirming the full £226,000 capital cost of the visit will be re-paid.

It follows a six-month campaign by city MPs, councillors, the police chief and Police Authority chairman Cllr Peter Weightman to have the costs reimbursed.

Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle and Riverside's MP Louise Ellman MP first quizzed ministers on the cost of the visit, saying they could not understand why Lancashire was given £174,000.

In July, West Derby MP Bob Wareing tabled a Commons motion saying the costs should be invoiced to the then foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who personally invited Ms Rice to the city, if the Government refused to pay up.

Cllr Weightman, said the money would help prevent a shortfall in the force's budget, which is "very tight" this year.

He said it also boosted hopes the Home Office might re-pay around £378,000 Merseyside Police spent researching the Government's abandoned plans for it to merge with the Cheshire force.

The Condoleezza Rice money should be back in the authority's general fund by the beginning of December.

That is as long as the Home Office accepts a detailed invoice, which it asked the authority to supply in yesterday's letter.

"This should be a matter of a simple bank transfer," said Mr Weightman. "But we will be fighting every step of the way if they try to reject it."