Car maker Nissan has boosted new car sales in Europe by almost a third, figures showed.

New car registrations in September jumped by 31 per cent on last September, leading the advance with South Korea's Kia Motors, which saw the number of new car sales jump by 40 per cent.

Nissan's Sunderland factory is the most productive in the continent and builds cars mainly for the European market.

Sales of all new cars across Europe grew by 1.9 per cent in September, with new models and aggressive discounting pushing numbers up, data from Brussels-based car industry group ACEA showed.

Registrations of new cars across the European Union, as well as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, rose by 1.4 million units, supported by solid growth across Germany - the continent's biggest market by far.

Growth was also strong in major markets such as Italy, Spain and France.

ACEA said the figures indicated a progressive recovery of the new car sales market.

This brought nine-month sales to 11.8 million units, just 0.1 percent below the level in the same period of 2004 despite an influx of used cars into eastern Europe that tends to dampen demand for new vehicles.

Figures compiled by ACEA showed that registrations in the 15 older European Union members plus Norway, Switzerland and Iceland rose 2.2 percent in September, bringing sales in the first three quarters up 0.5 percent to 11.3 million cars.

Slack sales so far this year have put the pinch on carmakers already squeezed by a strong euro and high raw materials prices.