Hewlett-Packard (HP), the US computer and printer giant, was to cut 968 jobs in the United Kingdom during the next year, as part of its worldwide restructuring drive, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The firm announced Monday 5,900 jobs cut in total across its EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region under the shake-up.

"We did expect the UK to be impacted, following the announcement in July," an HP spokeswoman told the BBC on Tuesday.

Two months ago, HP announced that it would cut 14,500 jobs globally over 18 months in order to save 1.9 billion US dollars a year.

The cutbacks are the largest at the company since 15,000 jobs were lost in the wake of HP's 19 billion-US dollar acquisition of rival Compaq Computer in May 2002.

Most of the UK job losses are set to go in human resources, IT and finance, and the company said it did not know how many of the redundancies would be compulsory.

On Monday, the US computer and IT giant said 1,240 jobs would go in France, where the firm currently employs 4,800 workers.

Unions there have now called for a one-day national strike to protest the planned job cuts. And the action is due to take place at all HP's sites across France on Friday, with a march scheduled near its site in the south-eastern city of Grenoble.

Source: Xinhua