HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa defended chief executive Stephen Elop after the company announced a new round of job cuts and warned on weaker profit earlier this month, saying he had the board's full confidence, according to Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat.

"Thanks to Stephen Elop and others, we have been able to get new phones with new operating systems faster into the market than ever before," Siilasmaa was quoted as saying by the paper.

Once the world's dominant mobile phone provider, Nokia's shares have fallen over 80 percent since Elop became CEO in 2010, as the Finnish mobile phone company struggled to compete with Apple and Samsung in smartphones.

(Reporting By Eero Vassinen; Editing by Dan Lalor)