The privately-owned San Francisco company said that the two targeted plants were finishing centres in Amarillo and El Paso, Texas, where garments are sent to be tweaked after they are initially made in separate sewing facilities.

The announcement of the job cuts came almost 11 months after Levi Strauss said it would close 11 US sewing plants and lay off 6,395 workers, or 34 per cent of its former work force.

Company spokesman Clarence Grebey said the new plant closures, due to take effect by the end of this year, would cut nine per cent from the company's current US work force of 11,100. Grebey said the company would continue to operate another finishing centre in San Antonio.

Levi Strauss said that the finishing centres had to be closed because they had beenoperating below full capacity as a result of the decision to close the sewing plants.

But in contrast to the previous round of plant closures, when Levi Strauss said US jobs would not be replaced by cheaper foreign labour, the company acknowledged that some of the work done at the two finishing centres would be moved south of the border.

Grebey explained that the company currently ships garments made in Latin America to its Texas finishing centres to be worked on, but he said this was a "costly and time-consuming process" and that Levi Strauss would use independent contractors in Latin America and the United States to do the work instead.

"When these facilities do close at the end of the year, some of the work they do will return to various contractor facilities in Latin America... but we will also continue to use finishing contractors in the United States," Grebey said.

Grebey explained that the planned closures were part of a shift in the company's long-term growth strategy, and he would not ruleout the possibility of more plant closures or job cuts.

"We'll never say never. We're looking for ways to reduce our operating expenses globally so we can become more competitive... but at present no decisions have been made to close additional facilities," Grebey said in a telephone interview.

"We're aligning more of our resources toward marketing, advertising and promotion, and product development with an eye on the consumer, and shifting resources from manufacturing." he said.

Grebey said the labourers affected by the decision would continue to be paid through the end of May, 1999, and would also receive a benefits package valued at $40 million.

Levi Strauss, which also makes Dockers and Slates pants, said it would try to reduce costs by $200 million over the next two years. The company said it was trying to cope with a downturn in the market for denim and to stay competitive with other apparel companies that employ cheap foreign labour.