Coca-Cola yesterday cut its long-term growth targets and warned of continued weakness next year in key markets, including North America and Germany.

Mr Neville Isdell, Coca-Cola's chairman and chief executive, pledged an additional $350 million-$400 million (€271 million - €310 million) of annual investment in marketing and innovation starting next year to reverse decline in the world's biggest beverage company.

Mr Isdell, a Coca-Cola veteran, was brought out of retirement last May to revive the company after months of management upheaval and sluggish sales in North America and western Europe.

But, addressing a meeting of investors and analysts in New York, he said it would be 18 months to two years before "people can say that the Coca-Cola company has turned around".

Mr Isdell did not provide a precise forecast for next year but told the meeting: "2005 is not going to deliver the returns that will be satisfactory to me as a shareholder."

The long-term target for annual volume growth was lowered to 3 to 4 per cent from 5 to 6 per cent.

Earnings per share growth would be in the "high single-digits", compared to the old target of 11 to 12 per cent.

Coca-Cola has seen sales of its core Coke product eroded by intense competition from rival Pepsi and a shift by calorie-conscious consumers away from sugary carbonated drinks.

Pepsi has also outperformed Coca-Cola in faster-growing parts of the non-alcoholic beverage market, such as bottled water and fruit juices.

However, Mr Isdell said he was convinced Coca-Cola could "become great again" and promised to restore the enthusiasm that had been sucked from the Atlanta-based company by recent job cuts and restructuring.

"We're not talking about radical changes in strategy. We're talking about a dramatic change in execution," he said. "We've got to restore that drive, that enthusiasm and put fuel back in the tank."

Mr Isdell said Coca-Cola would invest more aggressively in non-carbonated drinks but insisted Coke would remain the company's main focus.

"Unless we have a healthy Coca-Cola [brand] we will not have a healthy Coca-Cola company," he said.

Mr Isdell said most of the planned increase in investment would be spent on marketing, reflecting concern that the company's advertising had lost potency in recent years.