AN electronics firm has insisted it is committed to a North-East plant's future despite announcing 90 job losses.

LG Philips, which makes tubes for televisions and computer monitors, said the cuts would be made at its Durham plant, which employs 950 people, by the end of next year.

It announced the move as part of an overall plan to improve productivity and increase profitability, and said this would keep the plant competitive and lead to further investment.

Television tubes manufactured at Durham will be redesigned to lower material costs and there will be adjustments to working practices.

News of the job cuts comes after a leaked internal discussion document came to light suggesting that LG Philips wanted to shift production from its UK plants, including its site in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to cheaper eastern European countries.

The document prompted a series of crunch talks between bosses at the Dutch/Korean company and union officials, which ended with the assurance that there were no plans to close European plants.

The firm stressed that the jobs would be shed mainly through natural wastage, voluntary redundancies, and possibly staff transferring to outside support organisations.

Durham human resources manager Paul Beasley said: "We have made major improvements in recent years with £14m invested in the plant, allowing the introduction of successful new products like the 21 inch 'real flat' TV tube.

"But we are in an increasingly competitive global market and we simply have to demonstrate continuous improvement.

"This programme will mean further investment in training and equipment, and demonstrates further commitment to the Durham plant."

Mr Beasley said staff and trade unions had been consulted on the plans, and that as long as the plant remained competitive, there should be no further job losses.

Danny Carrigan, of engineering union Amicus, said matters could be worse.

"In a way, it's a relief that we are only talking about 90, but obviously for the 90 people involved it's bad news," he said.

"It's a relief that they've announced this at this time because it demonstrates that there will be no large-scale redundancies between now and next year.

"We want to have an early meeting with the company to minimise numbers."