London  - Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca confirmed Thursday that a further 6,000 jobs are to be axed in its worldwide operations, taking the total number of reductions to 15,000 by 2013.

It was not immediately clear where the additional cuts would be made. The company employs 11,000 people in Britain. AstraZeneca announced 7,600 job cuts in 2007, followed by 1,400 more last November.

The company also announced annual pre-tax profits of 6.06 billion pounds (8.68 billion dollars) for 2008, an increase of 9 per cent over 2007. dpa