Britain is set to sell a record amount of government bonds in the coming fiscal year allowing Gordon Brown's finance ministry to answer at least some of the loud calls from the market for more long-dated debt.

Mr Brown delivers his 10th budget on March 22 and bond market players are hoping he will signal a rise in long-dated and index-linked gilt issuance then to help yields recover further from generational lows hit on frenzied pension fund bidding.

The Debt Management Office will unveil its gilts issuance plans for the fiscal year starting in April just after Mr Brown finishes his budget speech in parliament.

That remit will be the result of extensive consultation with the Treasury and also with dealers and end-investors who have made very made clear their demands for a high proportion of bonds to be issued at the long-end and for a new 40-year gilt.

That should be easy enough for the Treasury to deliver given government bond issuance is set to soar by more than £10 billion to somewhere between £65 and £70 billion to fund a doubling in redemptions.

"We remain hopeful that the Debt Management Office will be given a remit to skew issuance significantly towards the long end," said Gertjan Vlieghe, analyst at Deutsche Bank.

He put gross gilt issuance at £65 billion. Of £37 billion in conventional gilts, almost two-thirds would be in long-dated paper. He predicted £28 billion of index-linked gilts. "This would go some way to relieving pressure on the long end," he said.

Andy Chaytor, fixed income strategist at RBS Financial Markets put gross gilt issuance at £66-68 billion.

"I think they will try and put something like 38-40 per cent in conventional longs and 25-27 per cent in linkers," he said. "If it was much less than that I would have real concerns that we are building up for another squeeze."

Issuing where yields are at rock-bottom levels sits well with the DMO's remit to seek the best deal for the taxpayer.

Economists also highlight the political benefits to Mr Brown if he manages to ease the burden from low yielding assets on UK companies, who are diverting funds away from capital spending in favour of sorting out their pension funds.

"I think the Chancellor might skew issuance to the long-end," said Andrew Clare, consultant financial economist at Legal & General Investment Management.

"It's a very easy win for him, there's very little to lose because ultimately it could raise investment too."

Mr Brown forecast in December that the central government net cash requirement (CGNCR) - the key fiscal aggregate from which gilts issuance is calculated - will be £43.3 billion for this fiscal year and £40.2 billion in 2006/07.

Taking that and its redemption profile into account, the DMO pencilled in a £70 billion gross financing requirement - which includes funds from short-term debt sales and National Savings. It put 2007/08's requirement at £66 billion.

That should put gilt sales at a record high in 2006/07 but may not be enough to make long-dated bonds pay decent returns.

"Although it is theoretically possible that the Chancellor could announce steps which would push long yields significantly higher, only very radical steps would achieve this - more radical than we can see happening," said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research note.

Under pressure from a new pensions watchdog to get their huge deficits in order, UK retirement funds have snapped up Britain's small supply of long-dated government bonds to match their long-term liabilities linked to an ageing population. The demand sent the real yield on the UK's groundbreaking 50-year index-linked gilt to just 38 basis points in January. It has recovered somewhat since to around 73 basis points but is well below 1.112 per cent when it was first sold last September. The imbalance between demand and supply also pushed yields on long conventional gilts sharply lower and sucked liquidity out of the market, prompting calls from gilt-edged market makers and end investors for the DMO to step in with more supply.

Comments from the debt issuer that is was listening to market concerns calmed matters somewhat and DMO head Robert Stheeman told Reuters recently that liquidity in the ultralong end had improved although conditions were still not terrific.

But some strategists still see the risk of more volatility. "The risk for the market is that it has got itself into a position where there is nothing but disappointment from the budget potentially," said Moyeen Islam at Barclays Capital.

"People are expecting so much long issuance that if the headline number is low that means the amount of longs will be commensurately lower and that could be a severe disappointment to the market."