A Nokia logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

PARIS (Reuters) - Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia said on Wednesday it could cut 597 jobs in France by end-2019 as part of a plan to save 1.2 billion euros at group level.

The job cuts would concern central and support functions within Alcatel-Lucent International and Nokia Solutions Networks France, which employ a combined 4,200 people in the country, a Nokia spokeswoman told Reuters in an e-mail.

R&D functions were excluded from the plan and Nokia, which bought former rival Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, will seek to limit as much a possible forced redundancies, she said.

The CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT, and CFTC unions said the plan was “unacceptable” and asked for a meeting at the Economy Ministry.

The Ministry told Reuters it would convene in the coming weeks a committee made of union and company representatives to monitor the issue.