HELSINKI, FINLAND(AFP) - Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would cut around 220 jobs in Japan as part of its plans to streamline its vast research and development operations.

The Japanese job cuts are the second round of layoffs Nokia has announced in its 17,000 employee strong research and development unit in less than a week.

On Friday the company said about 330 employees at its research and development units in Finland and Denmark would be made redundant.

"As part of its global efforts to align its research and development (R&D) operations to be in line with its focused portfolio of future products, Nokia will be reducing its R&D activities in Japan," the Finnish company said in a statement.

It added that despite the planned reductions, it would continue to have "significant sourcing activities in Japan" and said that Vertu, its luxury line of handcrafted mobile phones, would "also continue operations in Japan unaffected by today's announcement."

The mobile phone equipment giant launched a cost-cutting programme last January, after its earnings fell as consumers cut back on buying handsets amid the global financial crisis.

The programme aims to generate more than 700 million euros ($1.44 billion) in annual savings.

Before Tuesday, Nokia had announced about 4,000 job reductions since January, including around 1,300 voluntary redundancy packages.

Last month Nokia posted a surprise entry into the red, reporting a third-quarter net loss of 559 million euros amid rising competition in the smartphone market from Apple and RIM and problems with its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture.

The next day, it named Timo Ihamuotila as its chief financial officer, replacing Rick Simonson.

Earlier this month, Nokia Siemens Networks announced it would cut between 4,500 and 5,800 jobs by 2011 to boost profitability.