London  - Imperial Tobacco, Britain's leading cigarette manufacturer, Thursday announced a major European restructuring programme involving 2,440 job cuts and the closure of six production sites over the next three years.

The restructuring follows the acquisition for 10 billion pounds (20 billion dollars) of Franco-Spanish tobacco company Altadis in January this year, whose brands include Fortuna, Gauloises Blondes and Gitanes.

Most of the job cuts will come in France, where Imperial will lose around 1,060 staff, nearly a quarter of its workforce of 4,700. Factories in Metz and Strasbourg will be closed, the company said.

In Spain, 830 out of 6,700 will be lost in the restructuring. Cigar production in Britain and France will be transferred to Altadis' cigar factory in Cantabria, Spain, which will be responsible for all of Imperial's cigar production in the European Union.

Imperial, the world's fourth-largest tobacco company, has an overall workforce of 40,000.

Imperial said the proposed restructuring would result in annual savings of 300 million euros up to 2010, rising to 400 million euros by the end of 2012.

In Germany, where Imperial employs 2,000 people, restructuring would result in the loss of 250 jobs. Imperial said its Berlin factory would be closed, with production being transferred to Langenhagen, near Hanover, and to factories in Poland.

While closure of the Berlin plant would result in the loss of 420 jobs, a total of 170 new jobs would be created in Langenhagen and in the city of Hamburg.

In Poland, where the enlarged group employs a staff of 1,600, jobs would be increased by 200. In Russia, merger of the group's sales forces would result in the loss of 100 out of 2,100 jobs.

French and Spanish unions have voiced strong opposition to the plans which they have vowed to fight, the Financial Times said Thursday.

"Any announcement that involves job losses is regrettable. ... We will ensure that the consultation process is conducted in a transparent and considerate manner," the company's chief executive Gareth Davis said Thursday.

Imperial said it would close its cigar factory in Bristol, its headquarters in south-west Britain, where 285 jobs would be lost, and where tobacco production began in 1901. (dpa)