Berlin- Setting out details of cost-cutting to shareholders in Berlin on Wednesday, German automotive group Daimler said it was eliminating one of its highly-paid board members and his office.

As world sales of the company's premium cars and big trucks slump, Daimler AG has devised plans to cut spending while saving 141,000 jobs. It has asked 73,000 white-collar staff to reduce their working

week by up to five hours and take pay cuts of up to 14 per cent.

At the board level, there will be no replacement for the chief strategy officer, Ruediger Grube, after he leaves next month to become chief executive of German railways company Deutsche Bahn.

Supervisory board chief Manfred Bischoff said Grube's tasks would be redistributed to Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche and the other four remaining members of the management board.

Zetsche said the savings would be imposed, because "we want to remain a strong company even in times of weak markets."

He forecast a "significantly negative result" for the first quarter of the year, without giving details, but forecast gradual improvement late in the year, with the world car market not bottoming out until the second half.

He said he would negotiate this month with labour to achieve a cut in payroll costs this year of 2 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars), cut company travel and outside consultancy work, and reduce inventory.

As shareholders arrived for the annual general meeting in the German capital, labour activists demonstrated outside against the pay cuts. One placard declared, "It's your crisis. We won't pay for it."

The activists wore cardboard face-masks to make them look like Zetsche, whose balding, mustachioed visage has been a feature of Mercedes-Benz advertisements in the United States and other markets. (dpa)