A French labor union's Web revealed that Oracle Corp., the U. S. software giant, may hack as many as 1000 jobs in Europe.

Oracle provides work for 17,000 people in Europe, including 1,600 in France.

According to the French union, Oracle announced cuts during recent meetings of the company's European and French workers' committees.

The unions showed their anger by saying: "This major reduction in staff is not justified by the financial health of the company and the efforts undertaken by workers for many years at Oracle France."

It is worth mentioning here that only last month, Oracle, world's second-largest software maker, posted better than expected results, as it recorded an increase of 1.0 % in its annual net profit to 5.593 billion dollars. Though, Oracle's business outlook in North America had improved in June, yet the company reported that its fiscal 4th-quarter profit ending May 31 declined 7.2%.

However, when contacted, the company did not pass any comment on the report.