CAR maker Nissan is creating 200 jobs at its Sunderland plant to ramp up production following massive demand from Russia.

The company, which employs 4,100 people in Washington, Wearside, is increasing staff numbers to 4,300 to meet demand from the former Soviet country.

The Russian market was up by 61 per cent for Nissan in September, the eighth consecutive month that demand had exceeded the carmaker's expectations, due to increasing wealth in the country.

The Sunderland plant will build almost 9,000 extra vehicles for Russia - mainly Almera cars but also Primeras.

The two cars are built on production line one, which is the same line as Nissan's new hatchback, the Note, will be built from January.

New staff, on temporary contracts, will work on line one on all three cars.

The Almera is the top-selling import car in Russia.

A Nissan spokeswoman said: "There is an increase in production because we are selling a lot of vehicles in Russia at the moment, so we need to ramp up production to cope with demand."

The company is looking for 200 temporary manufacturing staff to help with production, and support the launch of its two new models, the Micra C+C, which started production last month on production line two, and the Note in January.

Last year, Nissan's vice-president told a Moscow business journal that the company was considering opening a plant in Russia because of high demand.

Most of the cars are built on Wearside, and some experts believe moving production abroad could affect demand from Sunderland. But Nissan has since remained silent on any further plans for a Russian factory.

The Sunderland plant has been the most productive in Europe for seven years, and is among the top ten most productive plants in the world.

The flexibility of the factory means it can mix and match its output according to market conditions, boosting production of popular models and throttling back on slow movers.

It means the plant can ride out market fluctuations better than old factories.

The Note went on sale in Japan at the beginning of this year, and will be built for the European market at Wearside.

The compact Qashqai car will start rolling off Sunderland production lines by December next year.

Nissan's Sunderland factory was opened in July 1986 and is now the biggest car plant in the UK, with a production capacity of more than 300,000 vehicles a year.