SIX hundred jobs will be created in Newport under plans for a call centre by a major telecoms group, the Argus can reveal.

The Argus has learned that the Caudwell Group, owners of the phones4U brand and 325 retail stores across the country, is planning to open a call centre at the Celtic Springs business park.

And it could lead to a further 300 workers being taken on at a second site by the firm. Negotiations are said to have reached "a delicate stage" between building owners AWG, the Caudwell Group and the WDA.

The Caudwell Group refused to comment, saying only that as a large group active across Europe it was always looking at deals and had no announcements scheduled.

But the Argus believes an official announcement could be less than two weeks away. The business would be based at the 60,000 square foot CS1000 building which is located near the new Acorn Recruitment & Training headquarters.

Work began on this site in January 2002 and the main contractor, Vanbots of Bridgend, will hand over the finished building to AWG next week.

The owner is understood to be "delighted" with its design and quality. AWG is the property arm of Anglian Water and owns a number of business park properties around Newport and across the UK.

The CS1000 building is located just off Cardiff Road and was built speculatively but with a service-centre type of tenant in mind.

Several potential tenants are believed to have been chasing the deal. The building is currently not large enough for 600 workers and discussions are underway on how the interior could be modified to increased the amount of usable work space.

Sandra Busby, director of the Wales Call Centre Initiative refused to comment specifically on the deal due to confidentiality agreements. She said: "All I can say is that if any deal of this size was to come off it would be fantastic news for the Gwent jobs market."