METRO IS set to launch in Dundee and Perth in the next few weeks as part of a major expansion around the UK. In its biggest push forward in recent years, the total daily distribution of the free paper is set to rise from 1.1 million to 1.35m copies as every UK edition is beefed up.

The news is likely to be disturbing for paid-for newspaper publishers, who have been hit hard since Metro's arrival in 1999.

Managing director Steve Auckland said: "We are putting in more copies where we think we can get more growth. We are not saturated and we won't be saturated once we've done this expansion.

"We could either have increased by a series of smaller amounts or made one big jump, and having talked to the media buying agencies, we feel we can go for the big jump."

Auckland said the increases were likely to take place in late August or early September. He stressed, however, that the final plan had not been signed off and that it could yet be postponed.

The total Scottish print run is to be extended by between 8000 and 10,000 copies from its current level of around 120,000, but Auckland insisted no final decision had been taken on whether to aim north of the central belt for the first time.

This depends on a recommendation of local publishing partner Trinity Mirror, which he has not yet received - but the Sunday Herald understands that the firm's sights are set on Tayside and Perthshire.

There will also be copies sent to Glasgow Airport, but it is unclear whether Edinburgh and Dundee airports are included.

The move northwards will put extra pressure on DC Thomson, which dominates Tayside and Perthshire and has already had to weather the launch of the Daily Record PM edition in Dundee this year.

In London, where the print run is to rise from 550,000 to 760,000, the focus will be on more copies for tube and railway stations close to central London, and a push into more distant commuter areas such as Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.

"We are trying to push out a little further," said Auckland. "We want more people to get the paper at the start of their commuter journey."

There will also be smaller distribution increases of the nine other English and Welsh editions.