CHOCOLATE and sweets group Cadbury Schweppes has warned further job cuts are likely to its 7,000-strong UK workforce.

Cadbury said it may axe jobs and close plants in the UK on top of the 550 job losses and two factory closures announced a fortnight ago.

The cuts would come as part of the group's plans to reduce its global workforce of 55,000 by ten per cent and close 20 per cent of its 133 factories worldwide in a four-year efficiency drive.

The move is part of efforts to save £400m a year by 2007.

But it declined to say whether the cuts would hit Bournville or its other UK sites in Bristol, Crediton in Devon, Pontefract in Yorkshire, Sheffield, Wrexham and York.

The company announced a fortnight ago that it planned to close sites in Manchester and Chesterfield with 550 job losses.

Chief executive Todd Stitzer yesterday declined to give details of when or where further cuts would happen.

"As and when we take action, people will be spoken to sensitively and thoughtfully," he said.

A spokesman said: "I am sure there will be more cuts in the UK over time, given that this is a programme running from 2004 until 2007, but we are not going to go into details today."