China vehicle sales topped 800,000 units for the first time in eight months in February as Beijing's policy initiatives aimed at boosting consumption lured buyers back to showrooms.

China, which overtook the United States as the world's No 1 auto market in January, saw 2008 sales growth fall to its slowest rate in more than a decade as the global financial crisis weighed.

"The February figure is very impressive. It seems that the new incentives are really having an impact on the market," said Yi Junfeng, an industry analyst with Changjiang Securities.

The policies introduced at the start of the year, including the scrapping of some road fees and halving of sales taxes on small vehicles, have increased the number of buyers to showrooms nationwide, analysts said.

Many automakers such as Chery Automobile, maker of China's best-selling compact car QQ, recently unveiled ambitious sales target for the year.

A total of 827,600 vehicles were sold in February, up 24.72 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday. Vehicle output rose 23.08 percent to 807,900 units.

Passenger car sales in February rose 24.23 percent from a year earlier to 607,300 units, the association said.

In the first two months, cars with engines of 1.6 litres or below benefitted the most. Combined sales of the segment rose 18.8 percent, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data showed, outperforming a 5.81 gain in overall car sales.

Cautiously optimistic

However, some analysts and industry executives remain cautious about the market's outlook, saying a single monthly figure was not evidence of a sustained pick-up in demand.

The figures may have been slightly distorted by the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which occured in January this year but in February 2008.

Still, automakers are heartened by the government's measures.

"China's car market will grow 10 percent this year, if there is good growth of 5 to 10 percent in March," Nigel Harris, Ford Motor's chief of sales and market in China, told Reuters this week.

The No 2 US automaker aims to outperform the market this year, betting on policy support to bolster sales of its newly-launched Fiesta small car which snapped up orders of more than 4,000 units in a five-week long pre-sale, Harris said.