NEW YORK (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. overtook General Motors Corp. in global sales in 2006, a U.S. auto magazine said Tuesday.

Official Toyota and GM data show GM edged Toyota out by 290,000 vehicles in 2006, but the sale of 420,000 GM vans should have been deducted as they were produced by a joint-venture manufacturer in which GM holds a less than 50 percent stake, Automotive News said.

The deduction would revise the GM sales in the reporting year down to 8,679,860 vehicles, according to the magazine. Toyota marked sales of 8,808,000 vehicles.

Many motor industry analysts have projected Toyota will take first place from GM in terms of official sales data in 2007.

Statistical standards for compiling sales data have yet to be unified among the world's automakers, a Toyota official said, adding Toyota's current statistical methodology is similar to the U.S. auto magazine's.

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