Hanover, Germany  - Amid forecasts of a sharp slump in worldwide sales of personal computers, executives gathered Monday in the German city of Hanover for CeBIT, one of the top annual fairs in the tech industry.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of the US state of California were to attend inauguration ceremonies Monday evening before business at the six-day fair begins on Tuesday.

The fair exhibits computers, software and communications products, mainly for corporate and manufacturing buyers, but is also a showcase for personal computers, laptops and the new ultra-portable netbooks.

At the event this year, California has been declared "partner," an honorary status usually awarded to entire nations.

Gartner, an analysis company based in Stamford, Connecticut, forecast Monday world sales of desk and portable computers this year of 257 million units, a decline of 12 per cent and the worst fall in the sector since it began.

It said sales in emerging markets would decline 10 per cent and in industrialized nations by 13 per cent.

However a German trade federation, Bitkom, offered a more upbeat forecast at a Hanover news conference Monday, suggesting the entire sector, including software and telecommunications products, would see worldwide sales growth of 3 per cent this year.

It said much of the sales growth would be scored in Latin America and Asia, but even Germany would manage 1.5-per-cent growth, helped by government purchases of new technology for schools and offices.

The data was compiled by European Information Technology Observatory, a Bitkom research unit based in Berlin.

Bitkom added that 55 per cent of its members in Germany said sales had held up so far, but nearly 60 per cent of Bitkom members expected the world recession to hit sales, while two-thirds were seeing signs of corporate clients cutting back or cancelling projects.

This year's CeBIT has suffered a 25-per-cent slump in exhibitor numbers to 4,300. (dpa)