Taiwanese group HTC is confident new models coming to market in April will turn around the ailing fortunes of the world's No.5 smartphone maker, and help to boost its annual sales volumes above last year's level.

We are confident this year will be ... a much better year, Florian Seiche, chief of HTC's European operations said, referring to the number of smartphones sold.

Even with the Q1 not being the ideal fast start right out of the gate in January, which of course we would have preferred, even with that we are very confident, Seiche told Reuters in an interview on sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Taiwanese smartphone maker launched the HTC One series of models at the trade show, taking the fight to Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc with fast graphic chips and advanced music and photography functions.

It is a fight that HTC was losing at the end of last year, when its sales slumped and investors dumped shares on concerns the firm had lost its edge.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg)

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