BMW is on course to sell more than 1m cars this year for the first time, fuelled by rising sales of its new Mini, the final fruit of its disastrous experiment with Rover.

The German car maker yesterday reported a 17.4% increase in first-quarter sales to 260,462 vehicles, including 27,691 Minis which are made in Oxford.

In March, when Mini was launched in the US and Japan, BMW sales rose 17.2% to 108,292 units, including 13,499 Mini Ones and Mini Coopers.

Absent from America for 35 years, the Mini sold 787 units in just nine days from March 22. Sales in Japan totalled 900 last month.

BMW's Oxford plant, originally rebuilt for the Rover 75, produced 42,395 Minis last year and expects to "comfortably" produce some 100,000 this year.

Michael Ganal, BMW's director of sales and marketing, said of the first-quarter figures: "This result confirms our expectations of being able to deliver over 1m BMW and Mini brand vehicles to customers this year for the first time."

Aside from Mini, BMW's growth in the first three months was spurred by an increase of sales in the top of the range 7-series and the X5 sport utility.

These figures emerged as General Motors stood poised to complete its long-promised takeover of Korea's bankrupt Daewoo car group for some $400m. With obstacles now said to be removed, a deal could be announced with GM's figures next week, sources said.