Japan Tobacco Inc. said Monday it has raised its group pretax profit forecast for fiscal 2003 to 197 billion yen from 187 billion yen, due to cost cuts in its domestic tobacco operations.

It left unchanged its earlier projected net loss of 17 billion yen, however, due to large restructuring-related losses, including those tied to an early retirement program.

The world's third-largest tobacco group kept its group operating revenue forecast unchanged at 4.64 trillion yen.

JT said it sold 56.4 billion cigarettes in Japan during the October-December period, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier. The decline reflects the nation's aging population, increased public concerns about health and the tobacco tax hike in July, it said.

It sold 229 billion cigarettes in Japan during the April-December period, down 5.1 percent from a year earlier.

Overseas sales in the nine-month period totaled 198.8 billion cigarettes, down 2.31 percent, due in part to weakened demand in Europe caused by tobacco tax rises in major European markets.