German sports car maker Porsche AG

sees its operating profit rising by more than 10 percent this year after demand for luxury cars in China boosted earnings in the first nine months.

Operating profit in 2011 will rise at a clearly double-digit rate, a spokesman for Porsche said on Friday, after the company reported a nine-month figure that was up 25 percent at 1.5 billion euros ($2.1 billion).

The spokesman declined to provide comparable operating profit figures for 2010, when Porsche had a truncated business year from August to December.

Porsche AG, jointly owned by Porsche SE and Volkswagen, reiterated it will sell more than 100,000 vehicles in 2011.

It sold 85,872 vehicles in the first nine months of the year, 26 percent more than a year earlier. Growth was driven by an 82 percent jump in sales in China to 17,683 vehicles.

Volkswagen on Wednesday posted a forecast-beating 45 percent rise in third-quarter operating profit, driven by emerging markets and strong demand for VW and Audi vehicles, but warned Europe's debt crisis would weigh on demand for cars in Western Europe.

($1 = 0.707 Euros)

(Reporting by Peter Dinkloh; Editing by David Holmes)

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