MONMOUTHSHIRE'S two fox hunts will meet on Boxing Day for what could be one of the last times, if a Commons revolt is successful.

MPs voted by a huge majority (213) on Monday to back a bill that would allow 90 per cent of hunts to survive under licence.

But hunt supporters fear a large group of Labour MPs will rebel in the next vote which could force a complete ban on hunting by 2004.

Both the Monmouthshire Hunt and the amalgamated Curre and Llangibby Hunt will set off on Boxing Day morning with around 50 riders and 32 hounds - under the shadow of an uncertain future.

Diana Bown, chairman of the Curre and Llangibby Hunt, whose Llangibby hunt heritage goes back to 1600, said: "We all have to stay optimistic and hope there will be some form of hunting in the future.

"It does make everything unbelievably difficult to organise when we don't know what the future is.

"It seems wrong to try to push through a bill that's about a minority when there are so many other important things going on in the world, and more cruel issues like factory farming.

"If there were a ban we would have to make terrible decisions about the hounds and would have a huntsman and possibly stables out of work."

The Hunting Bill will be discussed and amended by a committee in January, before going to another vote in the Commons. It will then be presented to the House of Lords.

Alan Hayes, senior joint master of the Monmouthshire Hunt, said: "We've been going for 300 years and we'll hopefully be going for 300 more.

"We are licensed now anyway as we have our own regulatory body to monitor hunting, so the current bill seems to be another layer of bureaucracy."

He said of the MPs trying to amend the Bill: "It's a most undemocratic way of trying to push things through.

"Fifty-eight per cent of the population of England and Wales are against a ban.

"Over the last three years we have had far more support than we've ever had in the past."

A spokeswoman for Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals, which is backed by the RSPCA, welcomed the outcome of Monday's vote.

But she said: "The real work begins now. The Bill must be significantly amended. There must be no chase, no kill and no licensing of cruelty.

"We are hoping for a complete ban in 2004, so Boxing Day hunts next year could be the last. Hunts should anticipate this and start scaling down their breeding of puppies."

* In the picture: The hunt leaves Abergavenny last Boxing Day.