A number of leading hi-tech companies plan to collaborate on a project they believe could create thousands of jobs.

Intel, Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs are included in a group of companies working with University College Dublin (UCD) and Dublin Chamber of Commerce on a plan intended to create a "wireless cluster" in the capital.

The initiative would involve companies in wireless communications and the university working jointly on research and development (R&D) projects and sharing technologies, according to Mr Tony Boyle, chief executive of Sigma Wireless.

"Bringing industry and academia together in a wireless cluster has very significant potential in terms of creating new enterprises and thousands of high-value jobs," Mr Boyle said yesterday.

Kista in Sweden, Cambridge in England and Turin in Italy have been successful with similar initiatives, he added. Dublin Chamber of Commerce is organising a forum with speakers from these centres in UCD later this month.

The chamber, UCD and the companies involved have established an expert working group to look at the various ways of establishing and structuring the "cluster".

Mr Pat Maher, a director of the State development agency, Enterprise Ireland, is the group chairman. According to Mr Boyle, it will produce a report early in the new year and is likely to present these findings to Government.