LONDON, Feb 3: Indian tycoon Ratan Tata said on Saturday he could give no guarantees over the safety of jobs, following his firm’s successful bid for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group Plc.

In an interview with British business daily the Financial Times in Mumbai, Tata said he could give no assurances because his company had only researched Corus “on paper” and had yet to examine their plants in detail.

“I wouldn't even attempt to do so because it would be wrong of me to give those assurances or to deny that was so,” he was quoted as saying.

“But I would say that we’re not a company that would first look at jobs.”

Tata's comments come after Britain’s largest steel trade union demanded a meeting with the tycoon seeking assurances he will remain committed to expanding Corus after his $13.7 billion bid.

Community, which describes itself as the main union in Corus representing 80 per cent of its British employees, also sought government backing for the steel industry’s attempt to ward off “accelerated or slow demise” and protect jobs.

Tata told the FT Tata Group, where he is chairman, would apply to Corus the lessons it had learned from upgrading its 100-year-old Indian operation to improve margins and productivity.

“Our plan would be to try to make the UK operations more profitable,” he added.

The FT said to make the deal work, Tata Steel would to have to drastically improve Corus’ efficiency as the European manufacturer’s margins were seven per cent less than the Indian firm despite having a greater capacity.

Tata Steel’s managing director has previously said the merger -- which would create the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker -- was not about job cuts, yet also that no one in the world had job security.

Corus -- created by the 1999 merger of Dutch firm Hoogovens and British Steel -- employs 47,300 people worldwide, including 24,000 in Britain and 11,400 in the Netherlands.

It is Europe's second-largest steel maker and the world's ninth-largest, producing around 18 million tons per year.

Tata Steel employed about 39,650 people as of March 2005, according to the company's latest corporate sustainability report. It is the biggest private steel firm in India.—AFP