Cellphone giant Vodafone Group Plc said on Friday it had sold a minority stake in a regional Indian company because the asset did not offer the British-based group a strong enough position in India.

Vodafone said it had sold its 20.76 per cent stake in RPG Cellular to mobile phone group Aircel -- the largest mobile phone company in Tamil Nadu -- for an undisclosed price.

India, one of the fastest-growing mobile phone markets in the world, is expected to see the number of mobile phone users surge to 12 crore (120 million) from 1.35 crore (13.5 million) by 2008. But it is a fragmented market, which is split into 22 regions. Each region, or so-called "circle", has up to four mobile phone operators.

"It is a logical move to sell a minority stake in a single circle operator," a spokesman said.