INTERVIEW-GM sees European sales slightly up this year

...Europe's sales and marketing chief Jonathan Browning said on Tuesday.

Browning told Reuters in an interview the growth would come thanks to firming central and east European markets including Russia, and especially from the Chevrolet brand.

"I see us showing some improvement year-on-year," he said.

Browning said the rise would probably be "small", but declined to be more specific.

"There will be grossly over 40,000 units of growth over the first half of 2007 versus the first half of 2006," he said.

In the first half of 2006, GM sold 1.07 million cars in Europe.