CAR maker Nissan last night said the construction of a factory in Russia would not affect production levels at its Wearside plant.

As Nissan posted record income of £2.62bn, it announced it was building a plant in St Petersburg, producing 50,000 cars a year from 2009 specifically for the Russian market.

Last year, Nissan, which employs more than 4,000 people at Washington, Wearside, created 200 jobs at the North-East factory to increase production following massive demand from Russia for Almera and Primera cars.

A Nissan UK spokesman said last night that production at Sunderland would not be affected by the new Russian plant.

"It won't affect us at all," he said.

"The Russian plant isn't going to be in construction until 2009 and we won't be building the Primera in 2009.

"The Russian plant isn't going to be in competition with us. It will be building for the Russian market, whereas we will continue to export to whatever markets we think there is a business case to do that."

The spokesman also said Sunderland had made a valuable contribution to Nissan's annual results, with the successful launch of two new models, the Note and the C+C, during the financial year.

President and chief executive Carlos Ghosn said: "Nissan delivered a solid performance in fiscal 2005, despite the many challenges facing the global auto industry, including higher raw material prices, higher energy costs, higher interest rates and higher incentives."

Nissan sold a record 3,569,295 vehicles in the year.

In the US, sales advanced 6.1 per cent - despite no new models - to 1,075,097 units. In Japan, sales fell 0.7 per cent to 842,062 units. In Europe, where sales are reported on a calendar-year basis, 540,945 units were sold, down 0.6 per cent, while sales in other overseas markets increased 13 per cent to 1,111,191 units.

Mr Ghosn said high material costs, rising energy prices and volatile foreign exchange rates would remain the biggest risks to growth this year.

This year will see one of the busiest periods in the plant's history, with the launch of the Note and production of Micra, the Micra C+C, Almera and Primera.

The Qashqai will start production at the factory in December.