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*Anheuser-Busch InBev will be cutting 1,400 US jobs in its beer-related divisions. *

About 75% of the cuts will be in St Louis, where the company's North American headquarters are based. In addition, more than 250 US positions that are currently open will not be filled, and 415 contractor positions will be eliminated. Most of the reductions will occur by the end of 2008.

The cuts announced are in addition to the more than 1,000 US employees who accepted an early retirement programme.

The company said the job losses will help it save at least $1.5bn a year by 2011 and cope with a "challenging economy".

Anheuser-Busch had 8,600 salaried workers this summer and had planned to reduce that by 10% to 15%, mostly by offering some 1,000 employees a voluntary early retirement package.

The redundancies occur only three weeks after the recent acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev, based in Belgium. It is part of ongoing consolidation in the brewing industry, including the merging of Miller Brewing Co and Coors Brewing Co into the MillerCoors LLC joint venture.