Unilever beats forecasts

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But there was disappointment the group planned share buybacks of only "at least" 1.5 billion euros (1.11 billion pounds) for 2008, similar to 2007, dashing hopes for a higher return to shareholders. The shares drifted down in line with the market.

The Anglo-Dutch Unilever, which makes Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Knorr soups said it had seen signs of a slowdown in parts of its U.S. business but this had been offset by more buoyant growth in other areas of the world.

"We certainly are cognisant of economic conditions and while we have seen some signs of a slowdown we have see buoyant demand in other parts of the world," said Unilever Finance Director Jim Lawrence on a results conference call.

He added pressure from higher commodity costs like vegetable oil, tea and mineral oil will continue into 2008, but he was confident the group will see higher margins in 2008 helped by the company's on-going cost cutting programmes.

Analysts said Unilever's confidence for 2008 was "pretty aggressive" given the background of rising input costs and weakening consumer confidence, and although the U.S. business looked weak, Europe had seen a surprising level of growth.

"Our caution remains for 2008 but our recent feeling, based on poor U.S. results last week, that problems would emerge earlier (i.e. Q4 2007) has proved misplaced," said Deutsche Bank analyst John Parker.

The quarterly growth of 6.1 percent compared to analysts forecasts of 4.0 to 5.6 percent and an average of 5.1 percent, and gave a 2007 annual rise above forecasts at 5.5 percent.

Unilever shares were off 1.6 percent at 16.27 pounds by 9:25 a.m. in a lower London stock market while Unilever NV shares dipped 1.9 percent to 21.25 euros.

Chief Executive Patrick Cescau said the fourth quarter marked a strong finish to a good year in 2007, which was the third successive year of accelerating sales growth.

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