Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, sold 2.34 million vehicles for an increase of 21 percent during the first four months, thanks mainly to China -- destination for more than a quarter of its volume.

Sales increased in the month of April by 11.4 percent to 603,600 vehicles, a spokesman for VW said on Monday.

Despite the very positive performance to date we remain cautious regarding the full year. The continued macroeconomic development can only be predicted with difficulty, the group's head of sales, Christian Klingler, said in a statement.

Deliveries of group vehicles to customers in China boomed with a 53 percent rise to 620,500 units in the first four months, driving a 23 percent gain in VW brand sales across all markets.

Group sales in Brazil, Volkswagen's second largest export market, rose just 3.7 percent during the same period to 217,000 vehicles.

Volkswagen's group sales in Germany fell 6.5 percent to 345,500. Until 2008, its domestic market was the carmaker's largest, whereas now its retail volumes are only about half the size of VW's in China. Volkswagen's most important model, the VW Golf hatchback, increased global sales in January to April by 31 percent to 223,000 units.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner and Jan Schwartz in Hamburg)

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