MOBILE phone group Orange said last night its call centre trials in India were "positive" - but assured staff it was committed to keeping the majority of its centres in the UK.

The group, which employs 5,000 staff in Darlington, Peterlee and North Tyneside, said it was currently recruiting about 450 staff for its North-East call centres.

But the recruitment is believed to be mainly replacing current staff rather than expanding its workforce.

Orange confirmed three months ago it was testing call handling in India through outsource companies Vertex and Convergys, leading to fears it would make redundancies in the UK.

Orange is the biggest private sector employer in Darlington, employing about 2,400 workers at its Yarm Road site.

An Orange spokeswoman said yesterday: "There have been early indications that the quality of service we can provide in call centres abroad through our third parties is positive."

But Orange refused to give long-term assurances, saying it would not make any redundancies and that the "majority" of call handling would stay in the UK.

Trade union Amicus hit back by saying Orange would not need to make redundancies because of high turnover of staff. Unions believe the tests in India pave the way for jobs being lost from the UK.

Reports in January suggested that Orange was planning to offshore an initial 1,500 jobs.

Ciaran Naidoo, of Amicus, said most companies that carried out trials went ahead with offshoring.