PARIS (REUTERS) - Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent plans to reduce its staff by 10,000 as part of a cost-cutting drive to save 1 billion euros (S$1.7billion) by 2015, Les Echos and Le Figaro newspapers reported on their websites on Monday.

The group, which employs 72,000 staff worldwide, will axe 15,000 posts but create 5,000 new jobs, the newspapers said.

The company intends to axe 900 net posts in France, or roughly 10 per cent of the domestic workforce, as well as closing sites at Rennes and Toulouse, and selling plants at Eu and Ormes, Les Echos said.

Le Figaro said the cuts would hit all regions, with 4,100 planned in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 3,800 in Asia, and 2,100 in the Americas.

A spokesman for Alcatel-Lucent declined to comment.