The move is part of the company's policy to streamline its global R&D operations that employ 17,000 people worldwide.

The cuts will affect some 230 workers of the 2,000 employed in Oulu, northwestern Finland, and about 100 personnel in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, where it employs 1,000 people.

Nokia said it will continue “to maintain a strong R&D presence” at both sites and strive to find new positions within the company for as many employees as possible.

Nokia stock fell more than 1.6 percent to euro8.95 (US$13.26) in afternoon trading in Helsinki.

The announcement comes a month after the company reported its first quarterly loss since it became the world's biggest mobile phone maker in 1998. Net loss in July through September was euro559 million (US$832 million) — down from a profit of more than euro1 billion in 2008 — and sales fell 20 percent to euro9.8 billion.

Earlier this year, it announced more than 2,400 job cuts globally and temporary layoffs of 2,500 workers in Finland.

The company aims to slash costs at its handset unit by euro700 million annually and has said it will seek more savings in operational expenses, looking at “all areas and activities across the company.”

In May, Nokia cut 170 jobs worldwide in production and logistics for mobile devices, and said it will offer buyouts to 320 employees at a manufacturing plant in Finland after a similar program for 1,000 global employees proved popular.

The mobile phone industry has been hit hard by the financial crisis but Nokia said it expects a halt in the decline in demand of the mobile sector in the fourth quarter. It has raised a 2009 forecast for total mobile phone volumes, saying it expects a 7 percent decline from the previous year rather than the 10 percent fall it had earlier predicted.

The Espoo-based company maintained the No. 1 position in global mobile phone sales in the third quarter, with a 38 percent market share -- unchanged from the same period in 2008 and the second quarter of this year. It said it expects no growth in the fourth quarter.