NTL, run by Barclay Knapp, dismissed the claim as “confusing and inaccurate”. But Mr Miller also said Pace had halted the manufacture of another order for NTL last week to prevent stock building up.But he told the City he wanted to continue doing business with the cable company, trying to reassure investors by saying: “We are not losing any market share because at the moment NTL is not getting any set-top boxes from anybody.” Today’s news shatters that claim and will raise new questions over Pace’s forthcoming results. Under the terms of its contract with NTL, Samsung has agreed to manufacture a fixed number of set-top boxes, in a deal thought to be worth £30m. One well-placed source said that if the initial contract is successful then Samsung could replace Pace.KS Lee, vice-president of Samsung’s networking division, said: “We view this initial contract as the start of a very important long-term relationship between Samsung and NTL.”The potential loss to Pace would be considerable NTL has 1,230,000 digital customers. In addition, NTL has a further million analogue users it is persuading to switch to digital.It is understood that at the end of last year NTL took delivery of 200,000 set-top boxes from Pace. With NTL taking on about 190,000 digital customers a quarter, its stocks will soon be depleted.

The City is also worried that Pace may have problems withother customers, including the indebted Telewest and the faltering Carlton-Granada joint venture, ITV Digital.Speculation is likely to centre on Telewest, which has worked on procurement and marketing initiatives with NTL. But Telewest is said to have no plans to switch its set-top box supplier. Pace admitted it is to ship 200,000 boxes to the US, down from its 500,000 estimate.. Lord Browne, the chief executive of BP, will tomorrow commit the oil giant to even stricter environmental controls as he tries to present Britain’s largest company as a green campaigner.

Lord Browne will say the target stands, despite BP’s size increasing with the purchase of Atlantic Richfield, and despite having higher output than in 1997. Effectively, BP will cut its emissions by up to 20 per cent.The chief executive’s stance will put pressure on the Bush administration to place tighter controls on its oil companies and could have a bearing on whether there should be increased oil production from Alaska, where BP is a major player.BP has yet to say whether it backs calls by environmentalists such as Greenpeace to limit Alaskan drilling. Rivals says if BP opposes expansion, it will be acting in self-interest, because an expansion would favour rivals such as Exxon Mobil.Last month BP took the unusual step of saying it would stop all political donations in the US. Last year it gave $198,100 (£137,000) to political parties and candidates in the US, 88 per cent of which went to Republicans.. A legal row over the public-private partnership of London Underground has delayed the £14bn deal by at least two weeks. This was initially refused but, after legal threats, an extension until next Friday was offered.This has been extended to 22 March, though it is understood that London Underground has told the bidders this deadline is final.The board of London Underground is not to meet until early April to ratify the deal, so missing the target date for completion set by Stephen Byers, the Transport Secretary.He has also come under pressure from Bob Kiley, the transport commissioner for London, over the deal.

Mr Kiley claims he was not given correct figures about the projected profits for the bidders.These have now been disclosed. The consortia is expected to make between 15 per cent and 20 per cent after tax each year on their investment.. Evidence showing that senior executives at Allied Irish Banks and its US subsidiary Allfirst knew about the unusual dealings by rogue trader John Rusnak is expected to emerge this week. The loan was with four banks – BofA, Deutsche, Bank of New York and Citibank. In his negotiations, Mr Rusnak threatened to withdraw AIB’s business if they did not agree to the loan. BofA executives say they contacted AIB about this and it was brought to the attention of Pat Ryan, the head of treasury. He denies this.AIB says it has no record of any banks raising concerns about Mr Rusnak’s dealings.