The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said sales in its China region, including the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, grew 39 percent in 2006 from a year earlier to more than US$6.91 billion, amid strong export sales and expansion into rural markets.

    Nokia's export sales out of China rose 67 percent to 4.8 billion euros over the same period, the company said in a statement Friday. It added that domestic China purchases by the company came to more than 35 billion yuan (US$4.5).

    China has been Nokia's single largest market since 2005 and the company won network expansion contracts from provinces of Guangdong, Hunan and Sichuan last year, the statement said.

    "Nokia's market share is now greater than 35 percent on the Chinese mainland," said Colin Giles, senior vice president of Nokia customer and market operations, China Area.