Canadian aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier, has denied reports that the 1,200 job losses announced this week at its Belfast plant came about as a result of pressure from lobbyists to save jobs at another plant in the US.

Responding to articles in The Irish Times and the Belfast Telegraph, the company said the layoffs in Belfast were in no way connected to the situation in Bombardier's Wichita plant.

In a statement, the company said its Wichita plant had lost almost one-third of its workforce since September 2001. In early December 2002 it closed for a long period and employees were laid off temporarily without pay. A significant number are not due to return to work until April.

"US politicians have been making representations in respect of efforts being made to make the Wichita plant more competitive, but this has nothing whatsoever to do with the situation in Belfast, where the majority of our programmes are shared with the Montreal and Toronto plants, which are also affected by the layoffs announced this week," the statement said.

The Belfast site had not experienced a disproportionate number of job losses, according to the statement.