More vehicles were sold in China last year than in Japan, making China the world’s second-largest auto market after the United States with almost 6 million units sold, the People's Daily said Friday.

But if imports of 160,000 cars were excluded, China was still No. 3, the paper said.

Domestic vehicle sales last year rose 14 percent from 2004 to 5.8 million units, the newspaper said, referring only to China-made products. Sales this year of vehicles are expected to grow 10 to 15 percent to 6.4 to 6.6 million units, the report said, citing figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

But sales of passenger vehicles, including sedans and sport utility vehicles, jumped 21 percent to nearly 4 million units, the newspaper said, bouncing back from a relatively lackluster rise of 15 percent in 2004. In 2003, sales almost doubled.

Car sales had been slowing, due in part to the government’s crackdown on easy auto credit to help cool an overheating Chinese economy.

The stronger performance in 2005 was partly due to healthy sales in secondary markets in poorer inland provinces, the paper said, quoting an official at the auto association.

China has turned into a booming market for automakers stuggling under discounting in saturated mature markets like Europe and the United States.

Earlier this month, General Motors Corp. announced a 35 percent rise in China sales to 665,390 vehicles in 2005, exceeding the combined 564,300 units sold by Volkswagen AG’s two Chinese joint ventures.