A man walks in front of the headquarters of NEC Corp in Tokyo January 30, 2009. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s NEC Corp will halt production and sales of personal computers in the Asia-Pacific region around July, a spokesman said on Saturday, in a move that would see it pull out completely from the loss-making PC business overseas.

NEC, which has the top PC market share in Japan, last month signaled a withdrawal from the PC business in Europe, Africa and the Middle East amid slumping demand and tough competition.

NEC has warned it would post a net loss of 290 billion yen ($2.96 billion) for the business year ending this month, and is accelerating restructuring efforts, which include pulling out from weak businesses and cutting more than 20,000 jobs worldwide.

Competition with rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc has been fierce and NEC sold its retail PC business in Europe in 2006.

NEC sells about one-sixth of its annual global sales of 3 million PCs outside Japan.