Munich  - Siemens, the sprawling German electronics group with 435,000 staff worldwide, is mulling plans to slash up to 15,000 white-collar jobs, according to labour sources quoted by a German newspaper Wednesday.

Siemens declined to confirm the figure, set to appear in a report Thursday in the business daily Handelsblatt.

A spokesman said, "We will comment on this in due time."

The figure evidently came from the corporation's labour representation council. Under German law, a company must inform a labour council about layoff intentions. Handelsblatt said the figure was far higher than labour representatives had expected.

IG Metall, the German trade union which represents some blue-collar staff, said it was not aware of the figure. On Sunday, a newspaper had quoted the union saying 10,000 jobs might be axed.

Siemens management was still compiling data after a disclosure request from the labour representation council, IG Metall said.

Siemens chief executive Peter Loescher has told the group to stand by for sales and administration costs to be pruned up to 10 per cent by 2010, a move that suggests massive layoffs in Siemens' multinational bureaucracy.

Key Siemens businesses include turbines, telecommunications systems, trams and medical treatment machines. (dpa)