Nortel, which employs 3,500 between Belfast, Galway, Shannon and Dublin, confirmed analysts' worst fears yesterday as it further slashed its first-quarter estimates and said it would cut 5,000 more jobs amid an an ongoing downturn in the US economy. It had announced 10,000 jobs cuts earlier this year.

At the beginning of the year Nortel, the Canadian world leader in fibre-optics, employed 86,000 worldwide.