The new Civic caused a stir when it was unveiled last year

The maker of the popular Civic and Accord cars reported net profits of 219.5bn yen ($1.9bn; �1.1bn) for the three months to March 2006.

A soft yen and accounting one-offs also boosted Honda in its fourth quarter.

However, Japan's third-biggest carmaker warned that overall earnings for the current financial year would be weaker than expected.

The Tokyo-based firm forecast a 7.9% fall in net profits to 550bn yen for the full year ending in 2007.

Honda said that it expected to sell 3.72 million vehicles this year, up from 3.39 million last year.