Japan's Panasonic Corp is likely to forecast a group operating profit of 260-280 billion yen ($3.24-$3.5 billion) in the current business year to March 2012, down about 10 percent from the year before, due to a fall in sales following a massive earthquake in March, the Nikkei business daily said on Monday.

The figure compares with the average forecast for a 262.6 billion yen operating profit from a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 21 analysts.

The Osaka-based company previously projected a 2 percent increase in profit to 310 billion yen in annual earnings guidance in late April, but that figure did not factor in the impact of the March 11 disaster.

The major electronics maker, which had an operating profit of 305 billion yen last year, is scheduled to report its latest forecast at 0630 GMT.

Demand for car navigation systems and automobile electronics parts have been sluggish due to depressed domestic auto production, the Nikkei said. Domestic sales of flat-panel televisions are expected to slip after the government's eco-point economic stimulus programme boosted sales last year, it said.

(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Joseph Radford)