LONDON - BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown will unveil a 500-million-pound (S$1.12 billion) plan on Monday to help the long-term unemployed get back to work, by paying employers to recruit and train people, according to reports.

The plan, worth US$750 million dollars, will be announced at a meeting with the leaders of Britain's biggest companies, welfare providers, trades unions and employer organisations, newspapers reports said.

Mr Brown has said jobs are his top priority amid the downturn and will say at the summit that measures are needed to stop 'temporary rises in unemployment made permanent, with whole communities written off as in we saw in the past'.

The plan would see up to 2,500 pounds given to employers to recruit and train people who have been unemployed for more than six months and who risk becoming struck in that situation, with 75,000 places expected to be created.

There will also be advice for people out of work and cash available for those who wish to start up their own businesses, newspapers said.

Unemployment has been rising steadily over the past year and is expected to increase as Britain formally enters recession later this year.