Vehicle sales at India's biggest car maker, Maruti Udyog Ltd, a unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, jumped 18.1 per cent year-on-year in December, helped by rising exports, data showed on Wednesday.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said Maruti's December sales rose to 30,107 vehicles from 25,503 in the same month in the previous year. Exports nearly tripled to 2,845 vehicles from 1,011 in the year earlier month.

Domestic sales rose 11.31 per cent to 27,262 vehicles.

Maruti, poised for an initial public offer later this year, forecast last September that its exports would leap more than 150 percent this fiscal year due to the success of its Alto compact car in Europe.

The SIAM statement showed Maruti's domestic vehicle sales in April-December, the first nine months of this financial year to March 2003, fell 4.29 per cent to 230,736 units. But exports were up 162.02 per cent at 21,182 vehicles.

Total sales between April and December were up 1.11 per cent.

The automaker, held 54.2 per cent by its Japanese parent and 45.54 per cent by the Indian government, makes 10 models in India, including cars, multi-purpose and utility vehicles.

But even though Maruti has a 50 per cent share of India's new car market, it has been battling to reverse a sales decline and beat competition from new entrants. In July, it cut the price of its largest-selling car by up to nine percent to boost demand.

Even though Maruti has a commanding share of the car market owing to its dominance of the small car segment, this is down from over 80 per cent four years ago due to competition from the Indian units of Hyundai, Fiat and domestic firm Telco.

Slowing sales and higher costs pushed Maruti to a loss of Rs 2.69 billion ($56.1 million) in the year to March 2001 but it rebounded to a Rs 1.045-billion net profit the following year due to price hikes, sharp cost cutting and big productivity gains.

The government plans to sell 20 per cent of the carmaker's stake to the public as part of its privatisation drive later this year.