Vodafone, which will this week face down a group of dissident shareholders eager to force it to spin off its interest in the US telecoms company Verizon, said strong growth in India and Turkey had boosted the group's performance.

In India, where the company acquired a controlling interest in Hutch Essar this year, Vodafone's customer base stands at 30.7million, up by three million on three months ago. While most of its Indian customers pay relatively low tariffs by Western standards . . . typically around 7.50 a month . . . the country is on target to become Vodafone's biggest in terms of numbers.

Only in Germany, where Vodafone has 31.6 million customers, does it have more contracts currently in operation.

Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive, said Turkey was also an increasingly important contributor to global revenues.

Vodafone rebranded the operator it bought in Turkey last year and customer numbers in the country are up by a third on a year ago to 14.9m.

"A strong performance from our [emerging markets] region, has offset continued challenging markets in Europe, " Sarin said, Vodafone said it expected its profits for the entire 2007-08 financial year to be in line with expectations.