Aero-Engines to defence business Rolls-Royce was remaining tight-lipped about the possibility of a sale of its Vickers tank business yesterday, as it reported a nine per cent rise in pre-tax profits.

Rolls has been linked with a sale of the firm, employing 450 staff in Newcastle, to armoured car manufacturer Alvis.

However, failure to win a £1bn Greek defence order, announced earlier this week, could have scuppered that deal.

Vickers still hopes to win a £300m Ministry of Defence order, due to be announced by the end of the moth, but it faces stiff competition from British Aerospace. Success would boost employment at the Scotswood Road based business beyond 1,000.

In the last year Rolls has cut about 5,000 jobs, including 3,800 in the UK, because of the impact of the US terrorist attacks on the aviation market.

But Chief executive John Rose said there were no plans for further redundancies. He said: "We have a good order book and a strong market position. We don't see any additional over those already set out in October.

"The restructuring programme is proceeding in line with forecasts."

In 2001, Rolls-Royce improved pre-tax profits before exceptional items by nine per cent to £475m.

However, the company confirmed earlier forecasts that figures for 2002 would be affected by the downturn in the aviation market.

In Rolls-Royce's core civil aerospace business, profits are expected to be about half those recorded this year.

The company's main UK plant is in Derby, where about 13,000 people are employed. Other sites include an aircraft engine business in Sunderland employing around 500 staff, Bristol, Coventry and Scotland.

Chairman Sir Ralph Robins said: "This was a robust performance, reflecting the benefits of the strategic changes made by management over recent years and the prompt action taken to mitigate the financial impact of September 11."

The group added it had improved its order book by ten per cent to £14.4bn, with £3bn taken in the period between September 11 and the end of the year.

During 2001, the company secured a 30 per cent share of all jet engine orders placed and maintained second place amongst the world's engine manufacturers.

New engine deliveries of 1,362 were the highest ever for Rolls-Royce as underlying profits rose to £347m from £332m.