Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday it sold more cars worldwide in the third fiscal quarter than it did in the corresponding period the previous year, adding that it will probably meet its earnings targets for the entire year.

Tokyo-based Nissan sold 719,696 vehicles in the October-December period, up from 644,816 a year earlier.

Sales volume in the United States, the world's biggest car market, increased 15.3 percent, from 172,550 units to 198,946.

In Europe, Nissan sold 132,965, up 15.1 percent from 115,542, while in Japan it sold 179,070, up from 172,850.

Nissan has rebounded from near-bankruptcy under an alliance launched in 1999 with Renault SA of France, which now owns 44.3 percent of Nissan. The company has been trying to expand global sales, following a phase of sharp cost-cutting.

The company said its third-quarter sales totaled 1.82 trillion yen. As this is Nissan's first year of reporting quarterly earnings, there were no comparable figures. Sales for the nine months of the current fiscal year stand at 5.376 trillion yen, it said.