A top BMW executive has revealed hundreds of workers will be offered permanent jobs at the Cowley plant over the next few months.

In a keynote speech today, Dr Helmut Panke, management board member for finance at the German motor giant, also officially announced the start of the third shift at the factory, which will see production of the new Mini carried out seven days a week.

That means the plant will comfortably achieve its planned production volume of 100,000 cars next year.

Dr Panke said: "We are creating several hundred new permanent jobs in Oxford in the coming months as we select continuously some of the best-performing temporary agency workers at the plant for permanent contracts."

The announcement comes as good news for the 2,000 workers now on temporary contracts. The first 49 permanent employees were chosen last week.

Two weeks ago, the Oxford Mail revealed about 200 people could not start temporary workers jobs they had been promised as recruitment for the production line had stopped and agency Manpower had over-estimated the numbers needed.

Speaking after a visit to the plant where he met management and workers yesterday, Dr Panke said £230m had been invested in the Cowley plant which now employs around 4,000. Another 3,000 work elsewhere in the UK.

The Mini is also driving forward BMW's sales figures in the UK.

More than 6,000 of the cars have been delivered to customers since its launch in July.

The new Mini has also been an instant success in BMW's homeland, with 700 sold in Germany already.

Last month, a 135mph supercharged Mini Cooper S was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show and will go on sale next summer.

Total BMWs registered this year have risen by 14 per cent and last week the figures topped the 70,000 cars it sold last year.

Dr Panke described the sales performance as "outstanding".

He added it was too early to say whether the impact of the September 11 atrocities in America would have an economic impact on BMW but said its strategy would remain unchanged. "We are planning to introduce, in the coming six years, a total of 20 new models and three new engine series," he said.

He described the Mini as a major milestone of the company's £6bn "market and product offensive" along with the new 7 Series which is due in European showrooms this month.