But although the group is determined to build an IT (information technology) services and outsourcing business to rival that of industry leader IBM, Green insisted BT had no plans to make his division a separate entity.

There has been speculation BT was considering drawing clearer distinctions between its various units.

"A (demerger) is absolutely not on the cards," Green told AFP's financial news subsidiary AFX News during an interview at the World Economic Forum.

"My philosophy is that (building Global Services) is an integrated process. "The central reason for Global Services... is to drive sales of broadband and IP (Internet Protocol) networking services across the group," Green explained.

IT services are becoming an increasingly important arena for BT, which is struggling with growing competition and decreasing profits in its traditional voice business.

In recent months, BT snapped up three specialized telecoms businesses -- Infonet and Radianz in the United States and Albacom in Italy -- to augment the telecoms networking services it can offer to multinational corporations.

Despite the recent acquisitions spree, Green said BT was looking at more small deals to fill the gaps in its IT services strategy.

"We are actively looking at everything that's moving in the marketplace. But don't get this out of proportion. Hundreds of millions of (US) dollars is about the range you should be looking at," said Green.

BT would need to boost its presence on mainland Europe, as well as in its home market, he hinted.

"France and Germany are important, but so are sector-specific purchases in the UK," he said.

Green stressed BT would be very selective in the type of group it targeted, and that he would not be too upset if there was no corporate activity this year.

"If I don't get anything over the next six to nine months I'm not going to care very much as I've got a lot of integration to do," said Green.

BT was more concerned with building its IT and business consulting know-how through niche acquisitions, rather than buying a mid-size IT services company 'off the shelf', he indicated.

"We don't want to buy an ordinary IT services company because we don't want to be like IBM Global Services or Capgemini," he said. "We want to be a services group but from a telecoms background."

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