Citibank has said it will have no difficulty finding an extra 1,300 employees for its flagship processing and service operation in Dublin's International Financial Services centre.

The US-based bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, confirmed yesterday it was planning a major expansion.

Citibank already has 1,000 staff in the capital. Yesterday's announcement brings the firm's investment in Ireland to £100 million.

Welcoming the project, which received financial support from the Government, the Taoiseach Mr Ahern said Citibank's presence in the Republic represented the most significant success to date by IDA Ireland in attracting investment in such "shared service" or "back-office" operations.

Citibank Ireland's chief executive, Mr Aidan Brady, said the various attractions of Ireland as a location for inward investment were well-known.

In November 1996, IDA Ireland scored its first coup in attracting Citibank's back-office operation. At that time, the company said it would employ between 800 and 1,000 people over three years.

To secure that deal, the IDA's chief executive, Mr Kieran McGowan, and the then Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Richard Bruton, had travelled to Citibank's Manhattan headquarters and engaged in what were later described as "hard-sell tactics".

Mr Ray Hoare, Citibank's staff and recruiting manager, said the company had done its research, and was confident it could find another 1,300 good employees with ease.

"We're not looking for bankers - we see ourselves as a business that happens to be a bank. We are looking for a wide range of skills," he said.

"We take people in and train them for six weeks before they even speak to a customer - we have them working in teams with Lego bricks, and we have consultants monitor how they would deal with customers."

Up to 600 of the new workers will be expected to have Leaving Certificates, while a similar number would have certificates, diplomas or degrees, Mr Hoare added. Another 100 to 200 would be higher-level positions, reserved for senior management, project managers and Information Technology specialists.

The company also plans to target women who wish to return to the workplace, and has set up a specific employment programme to increase the representation on its workforce of people from the immediate area.