DHL's express delivery service within the US is to close with the loss of 9,500 jobs after Deutsche Post, its parent company, abandoned its attempt to compete with FedEx and United Parcel Service on their home turf.

The withdrawal from all ground and air domestic deliveries is a radical response by Deutsche Post to the widening losses in DHL's US express business. Restructuring costs - estimated at $2bn in May - will rise to $3.9bn, which Deutsche Post said would drive it into a net loss in 2008.