Berlin - Japanese electronics group Sharp forecast Thursday that annual world demand for LCD flat-panel televisions would burst through the 100-million barrier some time this year.

At a news conference on the eve of the IFA consumer-electronics fair in Berlin, Sharp also boasted its thinnest flat-panel yet, with the thinnest part of the device just 22 millimetres from front to back, or less than on inch. The thickest part was just two inches.

Sharp said the set with the series name XS1 would be available for sale in Europe from this October and would offer viewers deeper blacks than existing LCD (liquid-crystal diode) panels.

The smallest XS1 would be a set with a screen measuring 52 inches diagonally.

Toshiyuki Tajima, chief executive of Sharp Electronics Europe, said world demand for LCD televisions from all manufacturers amounted to 76.5 million sets in the year ended last March 31.

In the year ending next March 31, this would accelerate to 100 million, or about half of the 200 million televisions which are sold worldwide every year.

The IFA trade show opens on Friday and runs through to Wednesday next week. It is one of the world's main annual exhibitions of televisions and other consumer-electronics products.