Corus will today announce thousands of job losses as part of a savage cost cutting programme that will decimate the 160-year-old steel industry on Teesside.

Despite last ditch pleas from Government ministers, the company said it had been forced to make "tough decisions" in the face of massive losses.

The Anglo-Dutch Group will make an announcement on where the axe will fall to the Stock Exchange this morning.

Although the huge factory at Llanwern, near Newport in South Wales, is likely to bare the brunt, Corus works on Teesside are expected to be hard hit.

Last night, it was reported that up to 5,000 workers nationwide - a fifth of the workforce - would go over the next two years.

Corus has endured a troubled time since it was formed by the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens 14 months ago.

A London-based spokesman blamed the strength of the pound, tough trading conditions and loss of traditional markets. And he warned: "Virtually every part of our operations in the UK will be affected in some way or other.

"We have had to make some very tough decisions in order to put the company back into good shape."

Following the announcement in London, senior managers at Corus plants across the country will be told of the cuts via e-mail. A series of mass meetings with staff on Teesside will then be held.

Trade Secretary Stephen Byers will make a statement to the Commons this afternoon.

At its height, the steel industry employed 32,000 workers on Teesside. Corus currently employs about 3,500 people at its Lackenby works, near Redcar, and 1,000 in Skinningrove, Stockton and Hartlepool.

The Corus spokesman said: "There has been chronic oversupply in Europe, our main market, for some time. Our operating losses in the UK have been building up and we had to find a way to match production with lower demand."

Analysts reckon the group's British operations lost as much as £350m last year. Although overall losses were partly off-set by earnings elsewhere, overall pre-tax losses were still around £150m.

The depth of the crisis was driven home before Christmas when joint chief executives John Bryant and Fokko van Duyne resigned.

Since then, Sir Bryan Moffat, the man who took over, has been seeking a way of reducing the massive losses.

Government ministers - who had hoped Corus could be persuaded to change its mind in the light of Nissan's decision to stick by its plant in Sunderland - were seething last night.

A source close to Trade Secretary Stephen Byers said: "The company have chosen to keep the information to themselves and did not share it with the Government. We are not best impressed."

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, warned workers to be prepared for "devastating news". He said: "The mere fact that Corus have been keeping all this information so close to their chests leads me to believe it cannot be good news."

Redcar MP Mo Mowlam said: "They didn't even have the common decency to talk to people, and if you don't talk to Government you don't get progress."

Bill Midgley, vice-chairman of the North-East Regional Assembly, added: "Once again it looks as though much needed manufacturing jobs are to be sacrificed. What this region desperately needs is some long term thinking.