TOKYO: Toyota, wary of trumpeting its success while U.S. automakers shut plants and cut jobs, is playing down its sales outlook in North America, analysts and investors said.

The company's sales in the region will grow as much as five times faster than what the carmaker is predicting for the year ending next March 31, according to analysts' estimates. North America accounts for about 60 percent of Toyota's operating profit.

"Toyota has spent decades winning the hearts and minds of U.S. consumers," said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a senior analyst at Shinsei Securities in Tokyo. "They don't want to gloat when the U.S. Big Three are having so much trouble."

Toyota's prediction - that its North American sales growth will plummet to 1.6 percent this business year from 15 percent last year - comes as the company is poised to surpass General Motors in annual worldwide sales.

The maker of Camry sedans and Prius hybrid cars has said it is concerned about criticism as it takes away sales from GM, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler unit.