HEWLETT Packard, the US computer group, may announce a further expansion of its Leixlip plant, to create an additional 1,000 jobs. This would be on top of the 2,000 jobs already promised for Leixlip by the end of this decade.

An IDA spokesman said negotiations are taking place with the group. Hewlett Packard is understood to be considering a number of its worldwide locations and the IDA is actively pushing Leixlip as an ideal location because as the site it has plenty of surplus capacity.

A decision is imminent and should be made "within days or weeks", the IDA said. The spokesman added that negotiations are ongoing with the major electronics firms, noting the recently announced expansion by IBM and Seagate.

Job creation in the future, he added, will come from the expansion of existing locations rather than green field projects. In these negotiations "Ireland has a high chance of success".

Last week, Hewlett Packard's chairman and chief executive, Mr Lew Platt, paid his first visit to the Irish plant to mark the employment of its 1,000th employee and to announce the doubling of this number by the end of the century. The Irish plant makes ink cartridges for HP's printers and has been expanding at a very rapid pace. Mr Platt said the Irish plant is very important to the group.

The Leixlip plant area exceeds 750,000 square feet on a 3,200 acre site. Commenting on the size of the site, Mr Platt, in an interview in last week's Business This Week, said: "You never can tell. Maybe at some point we will decide to put other HP businesses here."

Hewlett Packard has more than 120 plants in 120 countries and is involved in a wide range of electronics and computing businesses. The products range from diagnostic medical equipment to telecommunications equipment.

Mr Platt noted that the Internet is having a major impact on the group's business. "It is a huge driver of demand for computers of all kinds and is certainly one of the very big drivers of the printing business," he said in the interview.

Hewlett Packard has already invested £328 million in Ireland.