IKEA, the globe's biggest furniture retailer, expects sales to soar further in China's mainland as it opens more stores and offers lower prices to cash in on the world's fastest-expanding economy.

The Swedish retailer said its sales growth in China in the 2006 fiscal year, from September last year to the end of August, jumped 30 percent after climbing 20 percent a year earlier. It predicts sales will rise another 40 percent in 2007 as new outlets are opened in major cities.

"After a few years of learning, we are ready to expand in China," said Ian Duffy, president of IKEA Asia Pacific.

Two new stores, both large in size, are on the short list to join the current three IKEA outlets in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

A Chengdu outlet in Sichuan Province will be opened in three to four months to become IKEA's first store in the hinterlands.

The store, with floor space covering 30,000 square meters, will be 50 percent bigger than IKEA outlets in major international cities, including New York and London.

IKEA will also open a 28,000-square-meter store in Guangdong's Shenzhen. Company officials said the Shenzhen store will begin construction soon, without giving a specific schedule.

Duffy said the retailer plans to open new stores in other major Chinese mainland cities in the next few years including a second outlet in Shanghai, perhaps in Pudong New Area.

The retailer in April opened its largest Asia store in Beijing after shutting down the old one in the Chinese capital, which had operated for seven years.

With a floor space of more than 40,000 square meters, the new Beijing store is IKEA's second-biggest in the world after its flagship outlet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Meanwhile, IKEA plans to further cut prices to attract consumers. It's offering discounts up to 50 percent on some popular products, as increasing sales have enabled it to cut manufacturing costs.

Since its entry to the mainland in 1998, the furniture retailer has reduced prices by 54 percent.

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