A strong performance from its flagship brand as well as continued good sales of the Mini helped BMW increased sales by nearly 14 per cent in July.

The Bavarian firm saw sales increased by 13.7 per cent to 110,957 units in the month, thanks to an even stronger performance at its flagship BMW brand.

Group deliveries to customers in the first seven months rose 10 percent to 757,498 vehicles.

In July, the BMW brand increased sales by 15 per cent to 93,797 units, while deliveries of its Mini brand gained 7.1 per cent to 17,115 cars.

The Munich-based carmaker said it sold 94,622 new 3-Series saloons since the model's relaunch in March, 85 per cent more than were sold of the previous-generation model in the same time period after its launch in April 1998.

BMW also kept sales of its high-margin 5-Series largely stable, with deliveries of the line down 0.6 percent to 131,388 units in the first seven months of 2005.

Sales of its super-luxury Rolls-Royce Phantom gained 15 per cent to 45 cars, bringing deliveries for the first seven months of the year to 330 units, a drop of 7.8 percent.

"We've expanded our leading position in the premium segment across the world," BMW sales and marketing chief Michael Ganal said.

"While the entire premium segment worldwide has grown some two per cent year-to-date, we have been able to clearly surpass this with 10-per cent growth," he continued.

On Thursday, archrival Mercedes Car Group, DaimlerChrysler's premium division, reported vehicle sales rose by 2.2 per cent to 100,200 units in July.

Meanwhile France's tyre giant Michelin achieved a higher operating margin in the first half, as a better mix of prices offset a weaker global market and rising costs of materials such as rubber and steel.

The world's largest tyre maker its operating margin edged up 0.1 percentage point in the first half to 9.2 per cent, above an expected 8.8 per cent, and predicted its operating margin before special items would improve in the full year.

First-half sales rose 0.1 per cent to #5.14 million while operating income grew 0.7 percent to #477 million, above forecasts of around #457 million.

Net profit rose 8.9 per cent to #270 million and net debt was up 5.5 per cent at #268 million.

Michelin, which has a large plant in Stoke-on-Trent, predicted its raw material costs would rise 14 to 15 per cent in 2005, against its initial hopes of containing the rise to 13 per cent.

"In this context, Michelin reaffirms its policy of increasing prices," it said in a statement.