"Discussions have been ongoing with merchants and printers for some time and should be concluded shortly," said M-real commercial printing regional sales director Mick Barry.

M-real has also issued a profits warning ahead of its 2005 results, driven by the Finnish manufacturer's restructuring costs of 27.5m (40m).

The news is another blow to the firm, which has seen its financial performance impaired by cost-saving programmes and weak market performance.

President and chief executive Hannu Anttila, who broke the news in a statement to the Helsinki stock exchange, said the firm's fourth quarter result would be "weaker" than its third-quarter performance.

M-real's pre-tax results for 2005 will also be in the red, he said.

This comes as a personal disappointment to Anttila, who had hoped to return the firm to profitability during 2005.

The paper producer's share price dropped by nearly 4% on the news.

Out of the 27.5m restructuring costs, 17m is down to the cost savings and efficiency programme at the firm's Pont Sainte Maxence mill in France.

Some 60 jobs will be cut at the 120,000 tonnes per year fine paper mill, resulting in non-recurring costs of 3m.

The cuts were announced in December last year, due to rising energy costs and falling paper prices.

The assets of the mill, which amount to just over 14m will also be written down.

M-real's end-of-year results for 2005 will be published on 8 February.