UNION leaders last night vowed to fight plans by the country's biggest insurance firm to export 2,350 UK jobs to India.

The Amicus MSF union denounced the move as deplorable, adding that it would aggressively campaign to save the jobs.

The union, which warned that 200,000 finance jobs could leave the UK during the next five years, vowed to help workers fight the move by any means necessary.

But Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "Of course, I feel desperately sorry for anyone whose job is at risk as a result of this change, but that is the way the world is today."

Aviva, which trades as Norwich Union, gave workers the worst possible pre-Christmas news by announcing that it will outsource work to Delhi and Bangalore next year.

Norwich Union employs 3,300 workers in North Yorkshire and a further 650 in the North-East.

Union officials warned of at least 500 compulsory job losses at 14 sites across the country. The impact is likely to be felt in all areas.

The union last night pledged to fight the plans.

Karen Reay, MSF regional office for the North-East and lead officer for Aviva Life, said: "All four corners of the UK will be affected by this.

"We will not accept this, we will fight it and campaign against it.

"Enough is enough, outsourcing does not make sense. It is about losing jobs and roles in the UK. The company must learn that this is not just a numbers game."

Dave Fleming, national officer for Amicus, said: "They are throwing thousands of families on to the scrapheap for a 40 per cent saving that will not be passed on to their customers."

Aviva already employs 1,200 workers in Delhi and Bangalore and said its experience in India had been positive.

Richard Harvey, group chief executive of Aviva, said: "We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment.

"Our customers want value for money products and high levels of service, so it is vital that we continually explore opportunities to improve our efficiency while maintaining service levels.

"Our staff in India are an important part of this process and our experiences to date have been positive.

"Making decisions that will affect our staff is always tough, but by taking action to remain competitive, we will secure a long-term future for our business and therefore the majority of our people."

Aviva said the announcement would affect about 2,000 back office, administrative, processing and information technology roles and about 350 call centre posts.

The company, the seventh biggest insurance group in the world, employs 59,000 staff, including 33,000 in the UK. Aviva said it expected that 80 per cent of the jobs created in India to support the UK business will be accommodated by a combination of expansion, leaving vacancies unfilled, staff turnover and voluntary measures.

The company said the remaining 500 losses would be absorbed through redeployment, although the firm said it could not rule out compulsory redundancies.

Aviva shares fell 8p to 470p at the close of trading.

l It was also announced yesterday that workers at Lloyds TSB are to be balloted on strikes in protest at the bank's decision to outsource hundreds of jobs to India