Toyota Motor Corp, the world's most profitable carmaker, cut its 2009 vehicle sales forecast by nearly 7 percent due to a severe downturn in Western markets driven by high fuel prices and a credit crunch.

The weaker outlook highlights an increasingly difficult environment for global automakers faced with softening demand in the United States and Western Europe, especially for higher-margin, gas-thirsty vehicles.

Toyota said on Thursday it expects to sell about 9.7 million vehicles next year including its Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd units. It had previously forecast sales of 10.4 million vehicles. No car maker has yet passed the 10 million annual unit sales milestone.

"We are looking at the current shift towards fuel-efficient cars (in the United States) as a structural change in demand," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference. "We intend to respond quickly and flexibly to this environment."

The revised forecast was slightly lower than the 9.8 million analysts had expected. Toyota last month trimmed its 2008 sales projection, seeing growth of just 1 percent to 9.5 million units.

Toyota lowered its 2009 sales forecast for North America, the world's biggest auto market, to 2.7 million vehicles from 3 million. Toyota has dropped Mexico from its definition of North America. -Reuters