Lakshmi Mittal-led Mittal Steel reported on Wednesday a 43.7 per cent increase in its first quarter net profit, while beating its own forecast due to accelerated synergy generation from its $38 billion takeover of Arcelor last year.

The world's largest steel maker, to be renamed Arcelor Mittal after completion of merger process later this year, said its net income rose to $2.3 billion in the quarter ended March 31, from $1.6 billion in the year-ago period.

Mittal Steel said in a separate statement that the two companies are actively working to complete the merger process as promptly as possible in the course of 2007.

It said the integration process was going as per the plans and synergies worth $573 million were captured in the first quarter.

Arcelor Mittal President and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement: "These results reflect the strength of Arcelor Mittal's global business model and the continuing strong demand for steel generally.

The Mittal Steel-Arcelor Saga

"The benefits of combining Arcelor and Mittal Steel continue to outperform our expectations and we are on track to deliver synergies as planned," he added.

The company's sales and operating income rose to $24.5 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, from $20.9 billion and $2.5 billion in the year-ago period.

The results included the collective quarterly figures for both Mittal Steel and Arcelor.