"Discussions with London Underground broke down today because the company refused to suspend the introduction of the new rosters at the heart of this dispute to allow us to enter into detailed discussions in January," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"As a gesture of goodwill we offered to suspend our strike action if the company responded by suspending the introduction of new rosters that have not been safety validated.

"It is almost beyond belief that the company has turned down flat an offer that would have allowed services to run on New Year's Eve and given us the room for in-depth discussions to take place later. Surely the priority should be to get the services running.

"It is no good LUL talking about three days of talks at Acas if they have already made it clear that they will not move towards recognising our members' safety concerns - that would simply have left Londoners and our members high and dry.

"LUL's point-blank refusal to accept our compromise offer means that strike action remains on for 24 hours over New Year's Eve and over January 8 and 9," Bob Crow said.