Gartner sees roughly flat 2008 W.Europe phone sales

HELSINKI Aug 27 (Reuters) - Research firm Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said she expects cellphone sales in Western Europe in 2008 to be roughly on last year's level, helped by strong growth in the second half.

Cellphone sales in the key region for phone makers like Nokia and Sony Ericsson fell 16 percent year-on-year in the first quarter and 8 percent in the second quarter.

"It's a little bit (of weakness) in every country, with the exception of Germany and France, where we are seeing strong markets," Milanesi told Reuters.

She said Gartner's 9-percent value growth forecast for the global handset market in 2008 was in U.S. dollar terms.

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia has forecast the market to fall this year in euro terms. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki)