FRESH fears about the take-over of steelmaker Corus have been raised after its chairman said there was no guarantee that jobs would not be lost.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Indian conglomerate the Tata Group, said he planned to make the company's UK operations more profitable.

Unions fear that this could mean some of the 24,000 people employed at sites including Teesside, Scunthorpe, Rotherham and Port Talbot are facing redundancy.

They have called for urgent talks with Tata to discuss an investment strategy.

Interviewed by the Financial Times, Mr Tata said that the company had paid very close to its maximum price for Corus.

The final price was £6.7bn.

Asked to guarantee there would be no job cuts, he said: "I wouldn't even attempt to do so, because it would be wrong of me to give those assurances or to deny that that was so.

"But I would say that we are not a company to look first at jobs."

Tata won a bidding war for the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker last week, creating the world's fifth largest steel group, which is capable of producing 24 million tonnes a year.

It beat Brazilian rival CSN in an auction organised by the Takeover Panel, but ended up paying 33 per cent more than its first offer in October.

The overseas acquisition was the largest made by an Indian company and has ignited a wave of patriotism on the subcontinent.

Keith Hazlewood, national secretary of the GMB union, said he feared the bidding war had pushed the price too high.

He said: "We hope they are not going to try and recoup it back by a lack of investment in the UK and jobs.

"There is one thing you can rest assured - if they are going to come in and start trying to cut jobs, they are going to have a fight on their hands."