US car giant Chrysler has announced plans to cut at least 10,000 jobs, months after it was bought by a leading private equity firm.

Up to 10,000 hourly jobs will be cut next year while at least 1,000 salaried positions are also expected to be lost.

The layoffs come on top of 13,000 jobs that Chrysler - bought by Cerberus in August - is already shedding.

Chrysler said market conditions had worsened since the buyout and it needed to reduce costs more aggressively.

The firm is scrapping all overtime for hourly and salaried workers while the number of contract workers will be reduced by more than a third.

Chrysler said it expected sales this year to be "significantly lower" than previously thought and that this slump would continue in 2008.