GENEVA: French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation said on Monday that it would cut jobs in the United States and send workers in France on forced leave to cope with the economic slowdown.

The terms of the forced leave are under negotiation and should result in about 2,000 production staff in France being laid off for three-and-a-half days a month between end September and the end of the year, said Charles Edelstenne, chairman of the French aerospace group.

In the United States, hundreds of jobs will go from the current staff strength there of 2,500 to 3,000.

The job cuts "will be progressive," Edelstenne said at the business aviation exhibition Ebace in Geneva, without specifying a timeline.

The group had informed its staff welfare body that it may impose forced leave in France.

It marks the first time since the aviation sector crisis in 1990-1991 that Dassault has been forced to take such action.