The government's main aim is to get people who lose their jobs back to work before they become long-term unemployed and out of touch with working life.

'We're putting money into jobs, hundreds of millions of pounds, like today half a billion pounds,' Mr Brown told GMTV before meeting industry leaders for a jobs summit to look at ways to ease the looming recession's impact on employment.

He said the government was helping employers who took on new staff, helping young people with new apprenticeships and helping people to start their own businesses.

'Every possible option we are looking at,' he said.

The government is to give companies up to 2,500 pounds for new recruits who have been unemployed for more than six months, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

Unemployment in Britain rose to 1.864 million people in the three months to October, equal to six per cent of the workforce and the highest rate since the three months to June 1999.

Some commentators forecast it could rise as high as three million before the economy recovers.

Retailer Marks & Spencer and car maker Nissan Motor said last week they were axing 2,430 jobs between them.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell told Sky News there were still half a million job vacancies in the economy.

'The mistake we made in previous recessions was to give up on people. What we're saying is we won't give up on anybody but they mustn't give up on themselves. They mustn't stop looking for work,' he said.

Election by mid-2010
Mr Brown will tell the jobs summit the government is determined to prevent short-term unemployment becoming long-term, according to prepared remarks released by his office.

'We are today setting out a new guarantee of intensive support for anyone still unemployed after six months,' he will say.

A deep recession would severely harm any chance Mr Brown has of winning the next general election, which he must call by mid-2010. His ruling Labour Party trails the opposition Conservatives in opinion polls.

Business leaders called for more measures to free up credit to help tackle the unemployment issue.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which will attend the summit, said it was looking for measures to get cash flowing to business again.

'If we do not get credit moving again, good companies will fail, causing unemployment and lasting damage to the economy,' John Cridland, deputy director-general of the industry grouping, said in a statement.

The British Retail Consortium, also attending the summit, said it wants Brown to do more for its members, citing the example of variety store Woolworths, which went into administration with the loss of 27,000 jobs.

Mr Brown said the government had looked very closely at what it could do to help Woolworths, but had concluded that: 'Woolworths had a business model that wasn't working. It couldn't be saved.' -- REUTERS