Stockholm  - Nordic telecommunications group Telia Sonera on Wednesday reported higher sales and earnings for third-quarter 2009, topping analysts' forecasts.

Net income rose 5 per cent to 5.6 billion kronor (809 million dollars) while third-quarter sales were up 4 per cent year-on-year to 27 billion kronor, the group said.

Chief executive Lars Nyberg said the group was continuing its cost-cutting measures and had been able to offset some effects of the recession through its "mix of mature and emerging markets."

"The situation in the Baltic countries remains challenging," Nyberg said in a comment.

Telia Sonera and its associated companies had some 143.9 million customers at the end of the quarter, adding 4.2 million customers during the business period.

Northern Europe's largest telecommunications concern was formed through the December 2002 merger of Sweden's Telia and Finland's Sonera.

The group's cost-cutting programme is still under way and was, according to earlier announcements, to result in the layoff of some 2,900 employees, two-thirds of those in Sweden and the remaining third in Finland.

The group also has operations in Norway, Denmark, the Baltic states, Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Nepal and Cambodia. (IANS)