Eastman Kodak will cut as many as 4,500 jobs this year in the latest round of restructuring at the famous American photography group.

The company made a preliminary fourth-quarter loss of $137 million (£95 million) from its continuing operations, compared with a profit of $215 million in the same three months of 2007.

The figures may be even worse once further charges are taken on assets and goodwill.

The loss of 8 cents a share stunned the market, which had expected a 19 cents per share profit.

Antonio Perez, the chairman and chief executive of Kodak, blamed a dramatic decline across its business because of the slowdown in consumer spending.

"The second half of 2008 will go down in history as one of the most challenging periods we have seen in decades,” Mr Perez said.

Kodak, which in 1888 created the first camera designed for amateur photographers, has undergone an expensive four-year restructuring programme to transfom it into a digital photography provider.

Half of its workforce have already lost their jobs in the process, leaving 26,900 people at the company.

The company said that it would make further cuts of between 3,500 and 4,500 jobs this year, up from an estimate late last year of up to 1,500 job cuts in 2009.

The redundancies will affect up to 18 per cent of Kodak's staff and will cost the company $300 million.

The cuts are expected to bring annual savings of about $350 million.

The company's executives will not receive bonuses for 2008 because of the poor performance, and the entire workforce will have their salaries frozen.

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