NEW YORK - BOEING said on Wednesday it would cut about 800 jobs, or one-quarter of the staff, from its defence unit operations in Wichita, Kansas.

The cuts at the facility, which builds and modifies military planes, come with the winding down of work on tankers for Italy and Japan, and the delay in the US Air Force awarding a contract on renewing its own fleet of tankers, the company said.

Boeing's integrated defence systems unit, based in St Louis, has about 71,000 employees. -- REUTERS