LONDON (Reuters) - US technology services company IBM is to manage the IT requirements of Carphone Warehouse, Europe's leading independent mobile phone retailer.

IBM said yesterday the deal was a multi-year infrastructure services agreement but declined to say how much the contract was worth. Under the agreement, 140 Carphone staff will move over to join IBM and Manpower.

IBM will manage Carphone's infrastructure services across areas such as the service desk, servers, storage, desktop, network and data centres, generating savings for the retailer.

"I am confident that this alliance will offer lasting benefits such as increased service levels and efficiency improvements to our business," Carphone's chief technology officer Simon Post said in a statement.

Carphone said in February 450 jobs were at risk following a review but it was still looking to redeploy many of the affected staff.