Ericsson may make another acquisition this year

The world's top infrastructure provider for mobile phones saw a pre-tax profit of 12.2bn SKr ($1.75bn; �890m), up 20% but still below market expectations.

The fourth-quarter figures were boosted by record profits from its mobile phone joint venture with Sony.

But Ericsson has lowered its 2007 growth forecast for one of its key product areas.

It expects growth of between 4% and 6% in systems for the key GSM/WCDMA mobile phone technologies compared to the 5% to 9% target previously forecast.

These technologies are used in 80% of mobile networks.

But Ericsson's chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said the company ended the year with 40bn kronor ($5.7bn; �2.9bn) in cash at its disposal.

He added that this could be used to fund more acquisitions, following the purchase of the broadband network company Redback in 2006.