The number of people employed by Canadian telecommunications group Nortel Networks within the State is expected to remain static or fall slightly this year following the company's decision to cut its workforce by 4,000 over the next six months.

The news comes after Nortel said its overall number of employees would remain flat in 2001.

Nortel, which had about 86,000 staff in 2000, said that the job cuts in poorly performing parts of the company would be balanced by hirings in such highgrowth areas as fiber-optics or wireless network technology.

Company spokeswoman Ms Tina Warren had said Nortel would be shifting some jobs among various units but denied a report it would be making massive staff reductions. She said: "We're trying to put together a number" on the jobs that will be cut worldwide, "but our workforce fluctuates every day".

Nortel employs 1,000 people in the Republic, 900 of whom work at the research and development centre in Galway. A further 100 work in Shannon and Dublin. In the North, it employs 2,500 at Monkstown, outside Belfast, in an optics centre.

A spokesman for the company's Irish operations said: "We are not expecting a huge impact in Ireland. We do not expect to lose a lot of people." He added that 8,000 people were being recruited in Europe and the company would be focusing on high growth areas, mainly in Internet and fibre-optic related businesses, while keeping employee numbers static.

"How we are making that possible is through normal attrition and retirement in many cases."

The company's share price has suffered in recent months amid recessionary fears in the US and Canada.

Nortel Networks had revenue of $21.3 billion (€22.4 billion) in 1999. For the first nine months of 2000, revenues increased 46 per cent to $21.46 billion from $14.71 billion for the same period the previous year.