The move came as Andy Gilchrist, the firefighters leader, angrily denied that his declared wish to "replace New Labour with what I'm prepared to call real Labour" in a speech at the weekend amounted to deliberate politicisation of the dispute.
His remarks had been taken out of context and distorted by government spin doctors, said Mr Gilchrist. But the veteran transport workers leader, Bill Morris, joined ministers in admitting the remark had been "unfortunate" even as he accused ministers of running a "sabotage squad".
With the leadership of the Fire Brigades Union today due to plan a further series of stoppages - stretching into the new year - and ministers also predicting a protracted battle, Downing Street said the success of the armed forces in coping with the emergency is proving the case for the reforms that the FBU is resisting.
What officials call "a dry factual analysis" of the crisis so far, drawn up by the cabinet office's emergencies committee, Cobra, will be published at a No 10 press conference today by the local government minister, Nick Raynsford.
It will show that the troops not only coped with life-threat ening incidents, but "substantially exceeded" their response rate to all incidents where their attendance was requested.
But the sting will come in the tail, officials said last night. Such is the demand from noon to midnight that - if Wednesday's stoppage goes ahead - far more troops will be put on day shifts than on nights.
This is one of the cash-for-modernisation reforms that the FBU is resisting and it infuriated the strikers last night. Ministers have been analysing a false position, said the union, as 999 calls had fallen in the past eight days, as they did in the 1977-78 national fire strike.
Praising the forces' "superb performance" No 10 said it is preparing to enhance their performance still further next time. "We are not complacent," the official spokesman said.
Ministers moved to squash one inflammatory development reported yesterday. There are no plans to make strikes illegal among firefighters, as they are in some countries. Tony Blair has publicly said as much, officials said.
But that was the only cooling breeze as Mr Raynsford's colleagues backed his warning in an interview that ministers will not back down. "It could take months," he said.
After being put on the back foot over his speech to a rally in Manchester, Mr Gilchrist told the Guardian last night he had been arguing for people to stay in the Labour party and fight for what they believe in - such as improved employment rights - rather than quit.
"It's completely misreading what I was saying [to liken the strike to the 1984-5 miners strike], and I feel it's contemptuous of anybody inside the party who wants to utter any thing other than slavish adherence to New Labour," Mr Gilchrist protested.
"It used to be entirely acceptable for people in the Labour party to make criticism," he said after John Prescott asked why Mr Gilchrist had challenged the government's decision to put aside £1bn for a possible war with Iraq.
With a second eight-day walkout due to start at 9am on Wednesday followed by a third before Christmas on December 16, the union aims to force the government and fire authority employers back to the negotiating table over a two-year 16% offer linked to reform but falling short of the wholesale modernisation envisaged by ministers.
A succession of union leaders stepped forward yesterday to criticise the government's management of the dispute and to warn it could irreparably damage relations between Labour and trade unions.
Bill Morris admitted on GMTV's Sunday programme that Mr Gilchrist's comment about New Labour was "unfortunate" but concentrated his fire on the government. Attempting to "starve them back to work" is politically dangerous and irresponsible," Mr Morris said.
Leftwinger Derek Simpson, head of Amicus, said the government rather than firefighters had politicised the strike by taking control of pay negotiations and blocking a draft deal.
With Christmas leave cancelled for some of the 19,000 troops deployed, both sides are talking tough in public while seeking a way out of the impasse. On Sky TV the armed forces minister Adam Ingram warned: "We'll keep it up as long as necessary. If it is the case that they want to continue their strikes then the armed forces will stand ready to provide emergency cover to protect the people of this country."
