A MASSIVE £450m investment programme by Asda, will see 5,000 jobs created in the UK over the next 12 months.

The group, bought by US giant Wal-Mart in August 1999, said it would be building 13 stores over the year, including resiting its Peterlee branch leading to 100 new jobs.

It also plans to extend six existing stores, refurbish a quarter of its sites and open a distribution depot at Bedford, creating 600 jobs.

The plans are part of Asda's expansion drive announced a year ago when it said it would create 27,000 jobs over five years.

The proposals will see it open nine new stores at Swindon, Bodmin in Cornwall, Dumbarton in Scotland, Hull, Cambridge, Hyde in Greater Manchester, Leyton in east London, Sefton in Liverpool, and Dunstable.

Asda will also extend six shops, including sites in Dundee and Brighton.

A new store in Livingstone, which will create 250 jobs is costing Asda £30m, and is set to become Scotland's largest store and the country's first Asda Wal-Mart supercentre,

Phil Mason, Asda's chief operating officer, said: "This record level of investment by Wal-Mart in the UK is in line with our strategy of long-term market share growth, and is good news for all our customers."

Asda added that, in 2002, the group would become the anchor store in the Commonwealth Games regeneration development at Eastlands, Manchester.

The company, which has more than 240 stores in the UK, said each new store created around 400 jobs while a resite or rebuild created 100 jobs.

l Asda is winning the supermarket store-war with rival Tesco, according to a survey published by Which?. After months of price cuts and aggressive advertising strategies, Asda came top in the value for money category in six out of seven types of food, beating Tesco into third place