Staff at American Express, one of Sussex's biggest employers, face an anxious Christmas waiting to see if they will lose their jobs.

Workers at Amex - which employs about 6,000 people at centres in Brighton, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath - face the axe after the company said it planned to cut 6,500 jobs worldwide.

About half those whose jobs are to be axed had been told by the company before yesterday's announcement. The rest will have to wait until next year to find out if their jobs are safe.

Staff at the company's European and Middle East headquarters in Edward Street, Brighton, which employs 4,000 people, were unsure how the cuts would affect them.

One said: "If there are to be cuts here then I would obviously be concerned."

American Express blamed the cuts on the devastating effects on the global travel industry of the September 11 terrorist attacks in America.

The number of travel sales made by the company in October were 36 per cent down on the same time last year.

Kenneth Chenault, chairman of the company, said: "The environment since September 11 has underscored the need for us to create greater flexibility in our cost structure so we can be more adaptable to economic uncertainty.

"We have already made substantial progress on this initiative."