Dell Computer, the world's leading direct seller of personal computers, said yesterday it expects powerful growth to continue in Europe despite lack of success in Germany.

When the Texas-based company announced its results for the first quarter to end-April on Tuesday, it said sales growth in Europe had slowed to 29 per cent year-on-year from 40 per cent in the previous quarter. Analysts said Dell, like many PC sellers, had particular problems in Germany.

But an upbeat Mr Jan Gesmar-Larsen, president of Dell Europe, said yesterday that despite the slower growth, the company had jumped into second place in Europe's market share league in the first quarter.

Dell reported on Tuesday that first-quarter profits rose 42 per cent to $434 million as revenue grew 41 per cent to $5.5 billion. Gross margins fell to 21.5 per cent of revenues from 22.4 per cent in the fourth quarter.

But although it gave figures for European sales growth, it did not break down profits for the region.

Mr Gesmark-Larsen shrugged off scares that PC sales had been ramped up recently as companies scrambled to prepare for the millennium computer bug. He said he expected Dell's sales to continue to grow across the board.

Last month software giant Microsoft warned it was worried the information technology industry faced a period of uncertain sales as big corporations completed preparations early to fight off the bug. Microsoft worried that recent strong sales of personal computers might represent an unsustainable bubble.