ROCKY HILL, Conn. – Ames Department Stores Inc., which filed for federal bankruptcy protection in August, announced Wednesday it will close another 54 stores, including two in southern Maine.

The stores will begin liquidation on Dec. 30 and are expected to close in February or March of 2002. The decision is the third round of store closings in recent months by the Rocky Hill-based department store chain.

Ames will have 333 stores after the latest closings are completed, more than 100 fewer than its peak. The company is trying to emerge from bankruptcy by the second quarter of next year.

“Ames is focused on an aggressive plan to emerge from reorganization as promptly as possible,” Joseph R. Ettore, Ames’ chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This last round of closings gives us the financial profile we need.”

Ames said the closings of stores in Falmouth and Sanford in Maine and elsewhere across the country will increase sales at the remaining stores.

Nearly 3,000 employees work at the stores slated to close. Ames could not say how many will be laid off, but confirmed some will lose their jobs and others will be transferred to nearby stores.