Espinasse said the media and telecommunications giant made the job cuts " discreetly," without alerting the media.

At the end of 2004, Vivendi should have assets worth around EUR32 billion and net debt of between EUR3 billion and EUR5 billion, he said. The telecoms business should be worth slightly more than the media assets.

Espinasse was speaking at a conference in Barcelona organised by Morgan Stanley.

Vivendi will be cash-generating at the end of 2004, with an "investment grade profile," and have cash available for making a dividend payment in 2005 on 2004 earnings, he said.

By the end of 2004, Vivendi will have disposed of EUR18 billion of assets, ahead of its EUR16 billion target.

Vivendi has about another EUR4 billion of asset disposals still to make, including a 20.4% stake in Veolia Environnement which could be worth up to EUR2.2 billion.

But it will also invest EUR650 million to EUR700 million in the second quarter of 2004 towards upping its stake in its Moroccan telecommunications unit to 51% from 35%.

Vivendi is expected to return to net profit before items in 2003, after losing a pro-forma EUR514 million in 2002.

Pay-TV unit Canal Plus will break even this year, after 500 job cuts.

But Espinasse said Vivendi "has to think about" merging Canal Plus with rival TPS, although "there could be some co-operation without merging."

"Their profitability is being hampered by excessive competition for football rights and films," he said. "We have to study what can be done...lets get around the table and talk about our vital interests."

Espinasse said there was a "99.9% probability" that the deal to merge its U.S. film unit Vivendi Universal Entertainment with NBC, the General Electric-owned ( GE) broadcaster, would be closed before June 30, 2004, "and probably earlier than that."

Vivendi will hold on to its computer games business, he said.