Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson reported a worse than expected 30 percent slump in net profit in the first quarter as it suffered from weak sales.

Ericsson, which also was hit by big restructuring charges, said that weak conditions seen last year carried over into the first three months of this year.

"The market conditions we saw in the second half of 2009 prevailed also in this quarter with mixed operator investment behavior across regions and markets," chief executive Hans Vestberg said in a statement.

"Operators in a number of developing markets were still cautious with their investments," he added.

The group posted a 30 percent drop in net profit to 1.26 billion Swedish kroner (131 million euros, 173 million dollars) for for the first three months of the year, down from 1.72 billion for the same period of last year.

The result fell short of analysts' estimates for 1.79 billion kroner, as polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Meanwhile, sales fell nine percent over the period to 45.1 billion kroner from 49.6 billion. Financial analysts had forecast sales fell three percent to 47.8 billion kroner.