Sales of Volkswagen vehicles soared 24.3 percent to 711,000 units in China in 2006, allowing the country to become the German automaker's fastest growing market in the world, said sources with Volkswagen China on Friday.

Second came South America and South Africa, with sales both growing 14.9 percent last year, while sales rose 7.3 percent in Germany.

The auto giant sold a record 5.73 million vehicles around the world last year, up 9.4 percent, notching up profits of 4.4 billion euros on a record turnover of 104.8 billion euros.

Volkswagen AG is the among the first foreign automakers to set up factories in China. It is also one of the most successful foreign automakers in the Chinese market.

Shanghai Volkswagen, established in 1985 as China's first joint venture automaker, became the country's first carmaker with an accumulated production of over three million units in 2005.

The Shanghai-based company and the Jilin-based FAW Volkswagen sold 352,000 and 350,000 vehicles respectively last year, both among the top three leaders in the passenger vehicle market.

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