The latest circulation figures for British newspapers sold in the Republic bring bad news for many leading titles, with some down by more than 10 per cent.

British newspaper companies, already under pressure because of a slump in advertising, struggled to increase their presence in the Irish market in 2002, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Figures for July to December 2002 show the Irish Mirror was down almost 11 per cent at 78,748, as the battle among the three main tabloids - the Star, the Irish Sun and the Mirror - intensified.

The Irish Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, managed to buck the trend, increasing its circulation by 4.9 per cent. It is now the biggest selling British-owned tabloid here with sales of 116,140 copies per day.

The editor-in-chief of the Mirror Group in Ireland, Mr Craig McKenzie, said a price rise by the Mirror had contributed to the drop in sales.

However, he accused Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent Group of deliberately pushing up the cover price of their titles so that "second buys" of newspapers would shrink. "Also the ending of the Celtic Tiger has played a part in all of this," he said.

The circulation figures for several British titles have fallen, despite big news events like the general election, the World Cup and the Iraqi crisis taking place.

The two mid-market dailies, the Daily Express and Daily Mail, experienced contrasting fortunes. The Daily Express, saw its circulation rising by 16 per cent, but the Daily Mail, owned by Associated Newspapers, was down 5.3 per cent.

Traditionally, British broadsheets have sold poorly in the Republic and this trend was evident again in the figures, with all titles selling under 5,000 copies.

The Financial Times, owned by Pearson, was down by more than 10 per cent, with a daily sale of 4,988. The Independent, owned by Independent News and Media, was down 8.4 per cent and it continues to struggle in the British market too.

In the Sunday market the general trend was also negative, although this was not the case for the Sunday Times, also owned by News Corporation. Its circulation rose to 99,574, a rise of 2.7 per cent.

It has increased its Irish content considerably over recent years and this seems to have insulated it from the downward trend.

The only other Sunday title to increase sales was the News of the World, which increased by 1.2 per cent. The Sunday Mirror dropped by over 17 per cent, while the People was also down by over 11 per cent.