Helsinki - Finnish paper and forestry group Stora Enso on Thursday said it planned to shed 2,000 jobs as part of cost-cutting measures.

Most of the savings worth some 250 million euros (323 million dollars) were to be conducted this year and would be completed by 2010, the group said in connection with the release of its first- quarter report.

Stora Enso, one of the world's largest pulp and paper concerns, has a global workforce of 32,000.

Most of the jobs cuts would affect "administrative functions," chief executive Jouko Karvinen said in a statement.

The group posted a first-quarter pre-tax loss of 48 million euros compared to a pre-tax profit of 83 million euros year-on-year.

Year-on-year turnover fell from 2.8 billion to 2.1 billion euros.

Karvinen said the first-quarter drop was "driven more by underlying declines in demand, than customer destocking. Our forecast for the second quarter is for more of the same." (dpa)