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Paris, Mar 2: Mittal Steel said its planned $23 billion takeover of Luxembourg-based rival Arcelor would not lead to any major restructuring, documents published by a French newspaper showed on Thursday.

''Both companies are complementary, therefore generating almost no 'redundancy' in the combined footprint,'' Mittal Steel said in a six-page confidential document reproduced on the website of La Tribune (www.latribune.fr).

''There will be almost no negative impact beyond what the management of Arcelor has already announced in the Apollo Plan and other existing plans.'' Mittal Steel said that the board of directors of the merged entity would have a majority of independent directors, in a move to ease governance issues.

It also reiterated it would consider moving its headquarters to Luxembourg.

Arcelor has been fighting off the bid from Mittal, founded by the world's third-richest man Lakshmi Mittal, while the French and Spanish governments expressed doubts about industrial plans put forward by Mittal Steel earlier this week.

The Luxembourg government, which has a stake of some 4 percent in Arcelor, said on Thursday it had asked Mittal Steel for more detail about its industrial plans for the proposed merger.

In its document, Mittal also reiterated a target for annual synergies of around $1 billion by 2009, $600 million of which from purchasing savings alone.

REUTERS