The French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel will slash 10,000 jobs on top of 23,000 job cuts announced previously in a bid to cut costs by 20%, according to chief executive and chairman Serge Tchuruk.

The total job cuts amount to about 30% of the company's workforce.

The announcement came as the company reported a sharp turn-around of its fortunes with a net loss of 558m euros (�348m; $507m) for the third quarter of 2001.

"Our overall profitability... turned negative in the third quarter due to weak business in the US, handsets and submarine," Mr Tchuruk said.

Analysts had expected net losses of 309m euros.

Alcatel's third quarter losses bring the total net losses for the first nine months of this year to almost 3.5bn euros.

Last year, the company made net profits of 297m euros during the third quarter.

More losses ahead

The company predicted the fourth quarter to be bad as well with losses similar to the third quarter.

Mr Tchuruk said he expected to clock up net losses of about 5bn euros for the year as a whole.

The job cuts and restructuring costs will add up to about 1.2bn euros.

Reduced debts

The bad news aside; investors were cheered by news that Alcatel had cut inventories by 900m during the third quarter of the year.

And they welcomed news that the company expects to cut its debts to 4bn euros by the end of the year, down from 5.5abn euros.

"Investors are very focused on balance sheets these days, which helps explain why the stock is up," said JP Morgan analyst Jamie Wood.

Alcatel shares rose 4% by 0900 GMT.