France's largest food manufacturer Danone reported on Tuesday a 5.6-percent rise in its sales during the first three months of the year compared to a year earlier on expanded sales of child nutrition and water businesses.

Sales of the food processing firm stood at 5.33 billion euros (6.99 billion U.S. dollars) for the January-March period against 5.11 billion euros posted in the previous year.

Baby food activity was Danone's star performer, generating 1.17 billion euros of "exceptional sales," up by 17.1 percent thanks to "booming sales in the Asia-Pacific region, especially China."

Danone's quarterly report showed also a solid growth of water division that increased by 8.6 percent mainly due to "vigorous growth in emerging countries."

"As we expected, the first quarter of 2013 saw a solid performance that highlighted once again the contrast between robust growth in emerging markets and the sluggish economy in Europe," the company said.

The company aimed to expand sales at least by 5 percent this year and set free cash flow target at 2 billion euros this year.

For 2013, the operating margin was reduced by up to 50 basis points, according to Danone's financial report. (1 euro = 1.31 U.S. dollars) Endi

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