China car sales fell 26.1 percent in February from the previous month due to freak winter weather and the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, an industry group said on Friday.

Despite the month-on-month decline, domestic car makers sold 488,900 units last month, up 17.1 percent from the same period in 2006, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Car sales in January were 661,900 units, an increase of 4.2 percent from December and up 19.8 percent from a year ago.

Sedan sales in February rose 19.9 percent year on year to 357,100 units. Sport utility vehicles (SUV) sales jumped 47.2 percent to 28,300, while mini vans sales rose 12.8 percent to 15,400.

Domestic vehicle production and sales both surged more than 20 percent to a record 8.8 million units last year, in contrast to weakening sales worldwide.

China, the world's second largest car market, produced 6.38 million passenger vehicles and sold 6.3 million units last year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2008)