London  - Mining giant Anglo American is to cut a further 9,000 jobs across the group's worldwide operations as the global economic downturn hits demand for raw materials, the company said Friday.

The staff reductions come on top of 10,000 job cuts at Anglo's South African arm, Anglo Platinum, announced earlier this month.

A spokesman said the job cuts would be across the group's operations, which are mainly in South Africa, South America and Australia.

Anglo American reported a fall of 3 per cent in 2008 pre-tax profit to 8.57 billion dollars and warned that 2009 would be tough.

"The world economy faces an unprecedented level of uncertainty," chief executive Cynthia Carroll said. "The outlook remains poor in the near term, with expectations for continuing volatility and weakness in commodity prices." (dpa)