The South Korean firm reaped 1.5 trillion won ($1.3bn)in net profits between September and December, compared to 403 billion won a year earlier.

The firm's advanced mobile phones with colour-screens, voice dialling and cameras boosted its sales.

The group is the only profitable major memory chip maker thanks to its handset business.

Samsung has doubled its market share of mobile phones in two years, and is now snapping at the heels of market leaders Nokia and Motorola.

The company is aiming to sell 13 million mobile handsets in the first three months of the year, compared to 11.6 million in the previous three.

Investment strategy

But while the handset business is performing well, the company faces falling prices for its memory chips and has described the outlook for 2003 as "uncertain".

And the firm has admitted that there is likely to be a glut of chips in the first three months of the year.

Samsung's strategy is to see off a downturn in the semiconductor industry by stepping up its investment in top-of-the-range technology.

Last month, the firm announced a major $1.2bn (�754m) investment in its memory chip business by building new semiconductor facilities.

The firm's net profit for the full year hit an all time-high of 7.5 trillion won.