Budapest - Transport workers in Hungary's capital city will stage a strike stretching over several days from May 27 over planned service cuts that will likely lead to job losses, Gabor Nemes, a spokesman for the strike council, said Thursday.

Two previous strikes in April brought Budapest to a standstill as unions attempted to pressure the state-owned Budapest Transport Company (BKV) into withdrawing cuts to services.

Unions are concerned over the debt-ridden BKV's cost-cutting plans, which could see up to 10 per cent of Budapest's public transport services cut.

Strike leaders are demanding that unions be involved in drawing up a new plan that would minimize layoffs and also improve working conditions.

Despite aggressively hiking ticket prices, BKV is around 80 billion forints (490 million dollars) in debt and runs at a permanent loss. The cuts are aimed at saving 700 million forints this year and 2.1 billion forints in 2009.

The company is struggling to keep its infrastructure up to date, and its fleet of buses, trams and metro trains are on the whole old and creaky. (dpa)