Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, made a series of telephone calls to both RMT and London Underground (LU) today but there were no direct talks.

The strike would ruin plans for a huge New Year?s Eve street party in Central London, with the Tube running all night to take revellers home. The New Year?s Day parade, which starts at noon in Parliament Square and had been expected to attract 400,000 people, would also be badly affected.

LU expects to run some services on all lines but said that trains would be severely disrupted if there was a strike by the 4,000 RMT members among its 6,000 station staff.

The dispute centres on changes to rosters, which LU says are needed to help fund a reduction in the working week from 37.5 to 35 hours.

The RMT says that up to 800 staff would have to move from their current workplace to another station. It claims this will leave some stations dangerously understaffed.

But LU said its safety team had reviewed the plans and passed them.

Mike Brown, LU?s chief operating officer, said: "Does anyone really expect that, after what we have seen this year where the Underground staff behaved magnificently in the response to July 7, that we would ever want to operate a system that was less safe than it was in July?"

Transport for London tonight advised anyone planning to celebrate New Year?s Eve in Central London to plan an alternative route home which did not involve the Tube.

In a statement, it said: "In the event of the RMT strike going ahead, we expect there to be some disruption to Tube services, but London Underground intends to run as full a service as it can, throughout the night if possible. We expect to be able to provide some service on all lines.

"Before they travel, passengers should check the TfL website, local radio and television travel bulletins or call 020 7222 1234 for up-to-the-minute travel information.

"Given the possibility of disruption, and the very cold weather, we strongly recommend that passengers plan their journey carefully in advance so that they know how to get home using an alternative route if necessary."

The RMT has also called a 24-hour strike from 6.30pm on Sunday January 8 to 6.30pm on Monday January 9.