Superstore chain Asda is to create 450 new jobs in Crawley as part of a nationwide £360 million expansion drive.

The group, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, has permission for seven new branches. It will also relocate three existing stores and five more are being extended.

Part of the store extension plans includes adding "mezzanine" floors in the loft spaces of existing outlets where strict planning regulations prevent expanding the building outwards.

Asda supermarkets in Sheffield and Wigan are to be converted into "supercentres" selling a broader range of products, including sports equipment or even furniture, creating 300 new jobs between them.

Another 300 jobs will be generated by ploughing £38 million into extending branches in Weston-Super-Mare, Paisley, Cumbernauld, Govan and Bromsgrove, creating 300 jobs.

The extensions at Cumbernauld and Govan as well as the upgrade of the Sheffield branch are part of the mezzanine scheme.

But Sutton in Surrey, Crawley, East Sussex and Stevenage, Herts, are set to benefit most with 450 new posts being created in each.

The firm also said it would create 400 new jobs each at new sites in Thurmaston, Leicester, and Basingstoke, Hants, and 350 each in Harlow, Essex, and Oldbury in the West Midlands.

The £25 million relocation of a store at Castlepoint in Bournemouth is set to create another 150 jobs.

The company expects to complete two of a further three relocations by the end of this year involving sites at Widnes, Cheshire and Edinburgh, both of which are set to create 150 new jobs, and in Halifax, West Yorks, where 100 positions are planned.

Asda-Wal-Mart president Tony DeNunzio said: "This year pi s store expansion programme is great news for the areas where we are opening stores."