PARIS, Dec. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- New private car sales in France surged 18 percent in November, with 176,090 registrations, the French Carmakers' Committee (CCFA) announced in a statement on Wednesday.

    The figure contrasts sharply with results from the latest threemonths when new private car sales increased only 2.2 percent and with sales figures of last eleven months showing a decline of 0.4 percent.

    While sales of French-made cars increased 17.9 percent with 101,406 registrations their market share shrank by 0.1 percentage points to 57.6 in November 2004 compared with the same period lastyear.

    French carmaker Peugeot-Citroen saw sales increase by 13.3 percent with 50,757 cars in November, but their market share dipped to 28.8 percent from 30 percent last November.

    Renault sales jumped by 22.8 percent with its market portion upto 28.7 percent in November 2004 from 27.6 percent in last November.

    Foreign cars' sale increased more rapidly than French trademarks with an increase of 18.2 percent to 74,684 units, up 0.1 percent points in terms of market share to 42.4 percent in November. Enditem