Lord Patten, the new chairman of the BBC Trust, has stressed the importance of the BBC World Service and committed the Corporation to an international future despite Government imposed funding cuts.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph he set out his agenda for the first time saying the 16 percent cut in real terms following last year's licence fee settlement must not impinge on the BBC's core activity, particularly the World Service.

He was reported as saying "I hope that with the Foreign Secretary we can successfully mitigate the effects of some of the decisions which were taken.

"I'll be talking to him reasonably soon. I know he regards the World Service as an important part of this country's soft power and I'm sure that with goodwill and without megaphones we'll be able to sort it out.

"I'm hoping on Arabic services we will be able to protect that as something that is at the core of what the BBC is doing.

"I'm very keen on the Somali and Hindi services as well.

"The issue is can we restore some of what was going to be lost and I hope we can."

The Foreign Office has already said that it might reconsider its decision to withdraw funding for the World Service in the wake of public opposition to the move.

Patten said he believes that reducing the salary bill of senior executives and improving efficiency can help to prevent the BBC's most important services from being axed as it emerged yesterday that up to 1500 jobs could be lost in BBC News.