THE Ministry of Defence begins a legal bid today to derail High Court compensation claims by 1,000 nuclear test veterans, including seven from Merseyside.

The claims relate to bomb testing in mainland Australia and its island territories by the MoD at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s.

Veterans who served in the Army, Royal Navy and Air Force, as well as New Zealand and Fijian claimants, are involved in the landmark compensation case.

A writ released last April revealed five Merseyside men are claiming, along with two representatives of deceased veterans.

They include Karen Brogan, from Crosby, who is taking action on behalf of her father, Alfred Martin, who served on Christmas Island in the late 1950s and died of bone cancer, aged 55.

Ernest Cocker, 72, of Irby, and Harold Brocken, 71, from Woolton, who served during two tests on Malden Island, are also involved in the case.

About 20 nuclear explosions in mainland Australia, the Montebello islands off the west Australian coast and on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, form the centre of the claim.

Lawyers say the veterans involved suffered personal injuries of all types, ranging from minor injuries and skin conditions to cancers of the thyroid, liver, intestine and lungs and even death.

It is estimated the case could cost the MoD hundreds of millions of pounds in damages pay-outs if it is successful.

But today MoD lawyers will attempt to halt the claim on the basis that the events concerned happened too long ago to be the subject of a compensation claim now, using arguments under the Limitation Act 1980.