The move, announced by Ford's chief operating officer Nick Scheele on Friday, is aimed at shoring up the company's finances amid dwindling sales and an uncertain economic environment.

It follows a bout of retrenchment over the last two years during which the firm announced a total of 35,000 job cuts - about 10% of its workforce.

In an e-mail to Ford employees sent out on Friday, Mr Scheele said the company hoped to achieve a 10% reduction in salaried worker costs by the end of the year as part of a wider cost-cutting exercise.

He said he hoped any job losses would be achieved by natural wastage, but warned that if necessary, "we will have to reduce our salaried personnel structure."

Profit pressure

"We still face uncertain economies around the globe, and a fiercely competitive market place," Mr Scheele wrote.

"As a result, it's imperative that we continue looking at all of our costs globally to achieve even higher levels of efficiency and cost competitiveness."

The company insisted that it had no specific job-cutting target in mind, but there has been speculation that up to 2,000 white collar workers - mostly in North America - could be affected.

About 5,000 white collar positions have been eliminated at Ford over the last two years.

Earlier this week, Ford said profits in the three months to June had fallen by nearly a third compared with the same period last year, and lowered its European sales forecast.

The company, the world's second biggest carmaker, said it had been hit by the cost of cheap finance deals aimed at luring consumers into its showrooms.