Commerzbank said on Monday it would cut an extra 3,100 jobs by 2004.

This comes on top of 4,300 job losses announced earlier.

The job cuts are part of a restructuring effort aimed at reducing the bank's costs by 688m euros (�472m) over two years.

"We must make ourselves more fit and trim so that we can achieve our goal of getting back into the black this year," Commerzbank chief executive Klaus-Peter Mueller said in a statement.

Commerzbank wants to make a profit this year after reporting a 298m euros loss last year, its first-ever annual loss.

Slowdown

Germany's banking sector is going through one of the worst slumps in its history as the ailing German economy struggles with the global economic slowdown.

Commerzbank has been hit particularly hard because of its customer base, which is made up of about 40% small-and medium-sized businesses.

Widely seen as the backbone of Europe's biggest economy, these businesses have seen a rising tide of failures.

Commerzbank said 1,500 of its the additional job losses would be implemented at the bank's headquarters, as well as in information technology and its back offices.

The remainder of the 3,100 cuts will be made at Commerzbank's foreign bank branches and its loss-making investment banking arm Commerzbank Securities.

Commerzbank employs 35,000 people, 29,000 of which work in Germany.