Paris - Toyota, currently the world's largest automaker, plans to boost its sales by 200,000 to 9.7 million vehicles in 2009, Toyota's vice president Mitsuo Kinoshita said Wednesday in Paris.

The growth in the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - will also include North America and western Europe, Kinoshita said.

Toyota's new innovations with the super compact iQ and new hybrid models are expected to carry much of the growth especially in Europe, where the rest of the market is bracing for a 10 per cent sales slump.

Toyota expects its hybrid Prius sales in Europe to increase from 43,000 to 60,000 or 70,000 in 2009.

Since its arrival on the market 11 years ago, Toyota has sold 1.6 million hybrid autos worldwide. Since 2000 alone, Europeans have bought 160,000 of the model.

Beginning the next decade, Toyota is planning to make 1 million hybrid cars a year. (dpa)