Union officials held "frank and constructive" discussions with troubled telecoms equipment maker Marconi this morning over the future of 10,000 jobs at the company.

The hastily arranged meeting followed Marconi's announcement last week that it had failed to win a chunk of a £10bn telecoms project from BT. Shares in Marconi plunged 40 per cent on the news threatening the future of the company and the jobs of thousands of employees.

Following today's meeting trade union Amicus said it plans to work with Marconi to "minimise headcount reductions, effect other financial savings and mitigate the consequences of the BT decision recognising the need to retain a highly skilled UK workforce".

In a statement Amicus national officer Peter Skyte said: "We are disappointed with the lack of firm information leaving 4,000 UK employees and 10,000 employees worldwide touching the void without knowing whether the rope will be cut.

"The company was unable to give us any firm details of the scale of job cuts and redundancies but expect to be able to do so within the next week." ®

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