Ford has refused to comment on press reports that it is facing record losses of £400m.

The Financial Times says the UK operations of the world's second largest auto producer will in June report annual losses of £100m in 2000 and one-off restructuring charge of £300m.

With these figures, the FT says, Ford of Britain would be the largest loss-maker in the group's European division.

The previous largest loss was £389 in 1996.

But a Ford spokeswoman said: "The FT has done its own sums. We will not comment on them, but will announce the figures in June."

She also pointed to Ford's first-quarter results which showed that its transformation strategy "was helping to make our European operations profitable".