Sales totaled 10.288 billion euros (13.255 billion dollars), compared with 10.569 billion posted in 2003, a decline due in large part to the revenues lost from the sale of its Geosolutions unit late in 2003, the company said.

On a like-for-like comparison, sales edged down 0.25 percent on the year.

The figures were below analysts expectations and the company's own guidance, which called for a like-for-like sales increase of two percent.

Analysts polled by AFX News, AFP's financial news subsidiary, had expected 2004 sales in the range of 10.555-10.75 billion euros.

The company said currency fluctuations had little impact on sales, as the rise of the pound and the Australian dollar offset weakness for the US dollar.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.