BP profits are at the lower end of market forecasts

Net profit, adjusted for special items, rose to $2.87bn (�1.7bn) from $2.3bn in the previous year, helped by rising oil and natural gas prices.

However, analysts had forecast profits at the world's third biggest oil company of between $2.7bn and $3.2bn.

BP said the 25% rise included a one month contribution from its joint venture with Russian oil giant TNK.

The UK company's results follow a similarly underwhelming set of figures last week from Anglo-Dutch rival Shell.

Russia hopes

However, BP chief executive Lord Browne welcomed his company's performance, describing it as "another good quarter and a strong financial result".

Earlier this month, he defended BP's investment in Russia and insisted that its presence there was crucial to the company's future.

In August, BP completed a $6bn (�3.6bn) deal to set up a 50/50 joint venture with TNK, the third largest oil company in Russia.

But this weekend's arrest and detention in Moscow of Mikhail Khodorkovsky - head of Russian oil giant Yukos - has raised a question mark in some corners over western oil firms' plans for further expansion east.