Nokia saw mobile phone sales soar 38.6 percent year on year to 70.7 million units in China last year, according to its quarterly report released on its official website.

The Finnish telecoms giant attributed the surge to its widespread distribution channels, various products and a strong position in the country's low-end market.

In 2007, China remained Nokia's single largest market in terms of sales revenues, followed by India and Germany, said the report without giving further details.

Since 2006, the world's largest mobile phone maker started entering China's huge rural market and its sales jumped 39 percent to 6.9 billion dollars in 2006, as it sold 51 million mobile phones.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2008)