VW says June unit sales up 6 pct

In the first six months of 2009 VW saw sales fall 5.1 percent compared with a year earlier, even as the global market contracted by 18 percent, Winterkorn said at the sidelines of an industry event in Munich on Friday.

Winterkorn sees the global market for passenger cars in 2009 at around 47 million units, about 12 million units below 2007 levels.

"Volkswagen is holding its course," Winterkorn said, adding that compared to its competitors, VW is holding its own.

Although this was no reason for euphoria it showed that VW was on the right path, Winterkorn said.

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz; writing by Edward Taylor)