EAGLE Star's parent group has moved to reassure its 500 Bournemouth staff after yesterday announcing 4,500 job losses across the world.

Eagle Star's owner Zurich Financial Services "does not expect large scale redundancies in Bournemouth. It's business as usual.

"But the head count in Bournemouth will probably fall through natural wastage," said Zurich spokesman Jane Hewin.

Jobs could go in Bournemouth over the long term through normal staff turnover but at this stage it was not possible to say how many would be affected.

Zurich yesterday ann-ounced 4,500 redundancies world-wide - 2,000 in the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Australia and 2,500 in the US, continental Europe and the rest of the world. The redundancies were reported on the front page of yesterday's Echo Town Edition.

Swiss-based Zurich - Europe's third largest insurer - is under pressure to cut costs by $1 billion (£637 million) after yesterday revealing interim losses of $2.03 billion (£1.29 billion).

Although its Eagle Star general insurance call centre on Richmond Hill is expected to escape the worst of the cuts, there would be: "a continued focus on cutting costs and improving productivity," said Ms Hewin.

"These are challenges that Bournemouth emp-loyees have been meeting and beating over previous months and years.

"The challenges they are facing are not unique to Zurich," she added, saying that poor performance by the world stock markets had hit insurers' investment returns.

Zurich has offices in around 60 countries and employs more than 70,000 people.

Its results for the six months to June 30 include special provisions of $2.7 billion (£1.72 billion) to cover an increase in its reserves and the writing off of $954 million (£608.1 million) from accounts.

Before those one-off costs, net profits for the period were $683 million (£435.3 million), compared with $861 million (£548.8 million) a year earlier.

Earlier this week it was reported that Zurich would look to strengthen its balance sheet through the issue of new shares worth up to $2.5 billion (£1.59 billion).

Despite the bottom-line losses, Zurich recorded 18 per cent growth in premium income to $20.7 billion (£13.2 billion) in the first half of the year.

Trade union Amicus has attacked the job cuts and accused Zurich of acting in haste. General secretary Roger Lyons said: "They have decided to slash and burn instead of looking at the longer term picture."