VW targets India, Russia; 2008 pretax profit to hit $6.92 billion

He also said the German automaker famous for its Beetle will become more involved in the Indian and Russian markets and outlined plans to expand production and sales in both countries, which are seeing a burgeoning demand for new cars.

Winterkorn, speaking at the automaker's annual meeting, did not lay out an earnings goal for this year, which the company said earlier would likely surpass the 4.4 billion euros earned in 2006.

"The Volkswagen group has experienced 12 eventful months," he told the meeting. "The collective wage agreement in October and the return to a five-day week represent a big step toward more competitive labour costs, higher capacity utilization and secure jobs."

The company has spent nearly two years cutting some 20,000 jobs from its German workforce as it strives to become more nimble in the face of rising competition from European and Asian rivals.

Because of the restructuring, the company's workforce was reduced by seven percent to 94,000 employees. Workers at six plants in western Germany also extended their workweek to 35 hours from 28.8 hours.