By Mark Ward BBC News Online technology correspondent

Online store Amazon looks set to repeat its performance of 2001 and record a profit in the closing quarter of the year.

In a brief visit to London, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos talked up the company's prospects and said it was still growing healthily, despite signs of a wider economic slowdown.

But, he said, it was hard to make predictions about how successful the company would be during recession because it had never weathered one before.

And he also hinted that if growth stays steady, Amazon could become profitable year round, rather than just in the bumper Christmas period.

Cost counting

In only seven years online store Amazon has grown from nothing to a $3.4bn business. It has about 27 million active customer accounts.

Its fluctuating fortunes have been widely seen as a barometer for e-commerce generally and many people have been surprised that it has lasted this long.

Books are still big business for Amazon

Surprisingly for a web-based business, it declared a profit in the last three months of 2001, and Mr Bezos said it would do the same this year.

"I see no reason why we would not have a strong Christmas," said the Amazon boss, who was in London to talk about the company's marketplace service.

Mr Bezos said the three months to Christmas were typically a busy time as people buy presents and call on the gift wrapping and delivery services of the e-tailer.

It was only during this period that Amazon managed to generate enough cash to overcome its costs, said Mr Bezos.

"Amazon is a very high fixed cost business," he said, "as a result we need to generate meaningful cash flow."

"We need about a $1bn of revenue per quarter to be profitable," he said.

"As the business continues to grow as it is, we will eventually have a billion per quarter in non seasonal quarters," he said. "And then the business will generate meaningful cash flow year round."

History lesson

But Mr Bezos refused to be drawn on when exactly Amazon would generate more than $1bn per quarter.

We have no idea how fast we would be growing if the economy were growing faster

Jeff Bezos, Amazon boss

As the retailer is currently growing by more than 15% it is likely that it will be generating more than $4bn per year sooner rather than later.

Amazon is due to report its third quarter revenues on 24 October.

An upbeat Mr Bezos said there were few signs that Amazon's growth was being stifled by a wider economic slowdown.

He said historical comparisons were impossible because Amazon has not been in business long enough to know how it performs during such times.

"This is still a business that is only seven years old," he said, "we have no idea how fast we would be growing if the economy were growing faster."