ROME, April 9 (Reuters) - Italy's government has

brokered a deal between Turkish home appliances maker Beko and

trade unions to reduce planned job cuts in the country, a

government source said on Wednesday.

Beko, owned by Arcelik, had said in November it

was planning to let go almost 2,000 employees as part of a

turnaround plan for its Italian operations.

The company has now agreed to cut the number of redundancies

by more than a half, and to handle them via voluntary exits

rather than mass firings, the source said.

Beko also confirmed a commitment made in January to invest

300 million euros in Italy, up from an initial pledge of 110

million euros ($121.57 million) in November.

A spokesperson for Beko had no immediate comment.

The agreement was said to have been reached overnight at the

industry ministry in Rome after more than 12 hours of

negotiations between the company and union representatives.

Beko took on the loss-making Italian operations as part of

its 2023 purchase of Whirlpool's European domestic

appliances business.

($1 = 0.9048 euros)