Ford U.S. December U.S. sales down 9 percent

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) on Thursday posted a 9 percent decline in U.S. sales for December.

The struggling No. 2 U.S. automaker said it sold 212,094 vehicles in the United States in December, compared with 233,621 vehicles a year earlier.

Sales results for Ford included its import brands Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover, and some medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Ford said its full-year sales for 2007 were down 12 percent from a year earlier at 2.57 million vehicles.

Retail sales through showrooms were down 10 percent for the year, while sales to corporate fleet operators declined 18 percent, Ford said. That included a 32 percent reduction in sales to rental car agencies, it said.

The automaker said that more than two-thirds of its sales decline in 2007 reflected discontinued vehicles, such as the now-scrapped older version of its Taurus sedan.

For December, Ford's retail sales were down 13 percent while its fleet sales were down 1 percent. Sales of Ford's market-leading F-Series pickup trucks were down 22 percent.

Ford repeated its forecast that industry-wide U.S. light vehicle sales could slip to an annualized rate of between 15.2 million and 15.7 million units in the first half of 2008.

(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Brian Moss)