UK 'doing everything it can' to help steel industry: David Cameron

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday assured the nation that his government is "doing everything it can" to save some 20,000 jobs at Tata Steel but warned there were "no guarantees of success" after India's steel giant decided to sell its loss-making UK businesses.

Cameron, who cut short his Easter break in Spain and rushed to London to chair a crisis meeting of the Cabinet following Tata Steel's decision, said nationalisation was not the answer but the government was "not ruling anything out". He said the threat of thousands of job losses was "very difficult" and that his government would do "everything it can" but warned there were "no guarantees of success". "This industry is in difficulty right across the world.

There's been a collapse in prices, there's massive overcapacity," he told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Tata Steel, which operates the country's biggest steel plant at Port Talbot in south Wales, is losing £1 million pounds ($1.4 million) a day in its UK operations. A sale or restructuring would likely involve heavy job losses.