The global market is making more expensive UK workers less attractive

Marconi spokesman Stephen Hobson said the firm did not expect the meeting to have any affect on the redundancies.

The Financial Times said the DTI will call on Marconi to keep research and development operations in the UK.

Marconi recently lost a key BT contract and there are concerns it will move units abroad if it loses more business.

The planned redundancies are a direct result of Marconi not winning part of BT's new �10bn UK network contract.

The blow was especially hard as Marconi gets about 25% of its work in the UK from BT and it has been fighting to turn itself around after almost collapsing in 2000.

Round table

Mike Parton, Marconi's chief executive, and Alan Johnson, the secretary for trade and industry, are expected to attend the Monday meeting.

"Nothing will be discussed that is not already in the public domain," Marconi's Mr Hobson told BBC News.

Mr Hobson said that the meeting was to discuss the company's recent earnings report and the company's current operational status.

According to the Financial Times, the DTI is concerned that Marconi may be tempted to shift R&D jobs overseas after signing a major deal with China's Huawei Technologies.

Marconi's chief executive was quoted as saying that Marconi planned to keep at least part of its R&D operations in the UK.