LIBERTY International, a worldwide provider of occupational health and safety services, has opened a new health and safety consulting company in Belfast.

Liberty Risk Services (NI), which will employ eight people, will offer safety consultancy and training to companies in the North, particularly the growing number of US corporates which have invested there.

Liberty International acquired NIFAST, Ireland's largest health and safety consulting company, last March for an undisclosed sum. NIFAST, which has offices in Dublin and Cork, employs about 50 people in the Republic.

Mr Ronald Pruett, managing director of Liberty International Risk Services, said the company was attracted to Northern Ireland because of increased foreign investment and the high concentration of major manufacturing industries.