FRONT-LINE ambulances in Bolton are to get new high-tech equipment to help save the lives of heart attack patients.

It is the government's latest attempt to cut the high numbers of heart attack deaths in towns such as Bolton, which has a legacy of ill health.

Health minister Hazel Blears announced today that the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service was to get the second largest slice of the £14 million to modernise the emergency fleet.

The region will get £716,600 to be spent on equipping all "999" ambulances with special ECG machines, which help diagnose heart problems.

Local ambulances are also being given high-tech communications equipment so that the data from the machines can be transmitted quickly from the ambulance to the hospital.

Paramedics will also be provided with thrombolytic drugs and given training in how to use all the new tools.

Bolton is one of the nation's black-spots for heart disease.

Half the deaths from heart attacks occur in the first three or four hours after symptoms begin.

The new measures are expected to improve diagnosis and early treatment.

Mrs Blears said training and equipping ambulance paramedics to provide thrombolytics -- vital drugs that need to be administered in the early stages of a heart attack -- would save thousands of lives a year.

"By giving them ECG equipment and training in thrombolytics, paramedics can effectively diagnose heart problems and the results can be transmitted to A&E departments," added Mrs Blears.

"If patients are able to get thrombolysis an hour sooner than if they had to wait to be taken to hospital, 3,000 lives a year would be saved."

GMAS chief executive John Burnside said: "This will allow us to make real progress in the battle against coronary heart disease and will also help us to continue achieving and exceeding the national response time targets."