Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG (VW) said on Friday that its nine-month operating profit increased more than threefold on an annual basis, but the growth would slow down in the last quarter of 2010.

The group's operating profit for the January-September period jumped to 4.83 billion euros (6.71 billion U.S. dollars), more than three times higher than the 1.52 billion euros (2.11 billion U.S. dollars) posted in the same period of 2009, said VW, based in the northern German city of Wolfsburg.

The VW group, which includes brands such as Audi, Skoda and Seat, saw total vehicle deliveries rose by 12.9 percent to more than 5.4 million during this period of time.

The sales climbed by 19.9 percent to 92.55 billion euros (128. 64 billion U.S. dollars) and the net income increased more than sixfold to 4.03 billion euros (5.60 billion U.S. dollars), the company said.

Pre-tax profits are benefit from equity-accounted investments that included joint ventures in the robust Chinese car market and options linked to the luxury sports car maker Porsche, VW said.

The whole year performance will be "positive" said VW, while the momentum will not be so strong in the fourth quarter of 2010, VW added.

The company said China, Western Europe, North and South America will continue to be the major driving force.

The total deliveries would be significantly higher than that in 2009 mainly due to the strong business growth in China, VW added.

Details of the carmaker's full quarterly report are to be released next Wednesday.