Toyota Motor Corp said Tuesday that it plans to increase its production in 2008 by 5 per cent to nearly 10 million cars, which would cause it to leap ahead of General Motors Corp as the world's largest automaker.

Japan's leading carmaker said that thanks to rising demand in China, the Mideast, Russia and other growth markets, it expected to make 9.95 million units next year.

Toyota and GM are now running neck and neck for the title of the world's largest automaker. From January to September, Toyota sold a record 7.05 million cars, an increase of 7-per-cent from the same timeframe a year ago.

That figure was behind GM's 7-06 million cars sold, a growth of 2.4 per cent.

Toyota said Tuesday in Nagoya that its 2008 sales should rise to 9.85 vehicles and should top 10 million by 2009, when they were estimated at 10.4 million.

For the current year, Toyota said it expected to produce 5 per cent more cars than last year at 9.51 million.

In an end-of-year press conference, Toyota boss Katsuaki Watanabe said that this year, Toyota's foreign production should, for the first time, exceed its domestic production.

Rival GM, which has held the title of the world's largest carmaker since 1931, said recently that its production this year had risen to 9.26 million vehicles, an increase from 9.18 million last year.

It did not release production goals for 2008.