Helsinki - The world's largest mobile phone maker, Finnish- based Nokia, said Thursday it was to stop selling and marketing its mobile devices in Japan over poor sales.

"In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific product variants is no longer sustainable," Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia executive vice president, said in a statement.

Nokia was to continue with its global research and development activities based in Japan. Sales of the Nokia-owned luxury brand Vertu were also to continue.

Earlier this month Nokia lowered it forecast for the fourth quarter and revised its 2009 estimates for the global handset market.

For full-year 2008, global sales were predicted to be 1.24 billion handsets instead of earlier estimates of 1.26 billion units. In 2007, some 1.14 billion units were sold worldwide, Nokia said. (dpa)