Nissan Motor Company's profit for the July-September quarter climbed eight per cent as strong sales around the world offset rising raw material costs and discount incentives to sell cars in North America.

Japan's second biggest car company today reported group net profit of 125 billion yen (£609m) for the quarter, up from 115.6 billion yen (£563m) the same period a year ago. Sales for the period jumped 11.5 percent to 2.3 trillion yen (£11.2bn) from 2.1 trillion yen (£10.2bn).

Nissan has been gaining strength since embarking on a revival under chief executive Carlos Ghosn.

"At the end of September, we declared the revival of Nissan complete," Ghosn said. "Nissan continues to move at the right pace in the right direction."

Earlier this month, Nissan Motor Company said it had reached a key target in its turnaround plan, ‘Nissan 180’, by increasing its annual global sales by one million vehicles compared to three years ago.

Nissan's global sales in the 12 months through September totaled 3.67m vehicles, more than one million from the 2.6m vehicles sold in the fiscal year to the end of March 2002.