Morrisons has had a tough ride since taking over Safeway

They are the latest of 196 such outlets that Bradford-based Morrisons has now either sold or closed since it took over Safeway for �3bn in March 2004.

The stores going to Sainsbury's are mainly in town centre locations. Morrisons said they did not fit in with its business portfolio.

The deal remains subject to approval by the Office of Fair Trading.

If given the go-ahead, the transfer will take place during the autumn, with the refurbished new Sainsbury's stores due to open in time for the festive season.

The outlets in question are located in Acocks Green in the West Midlands; Andover, Bitterne and Eastleigh in Hampshire; Hammersmith and Morden in London; Midsomer Norton near Bath; Slough in Berkshire; and East Kilbride in Scotland.

They have a combined value of approximately �16.8m.

Profit warning

When Morrisons first took over Safeway, the Office of Fair Trading told it to offload 52 stores for competition reasons.

It has since sold off many more stores that it does not want.

These include 115 to Somerfield, which was announced earlier this year, and five to Waitrose only last week.

Morrisons has struggled to incorporate the great majority of the former Safeway stores that it has decided to keep, and warned in June that profits for 2005 could be as low as �50m, compared with earlier forecasts of �250m.

Yet the UK's four largest supermarket recently cheered investors after saying like-for-like sales were now growing by 5%.