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General Motors wants to be the world's biggest automaker by unit sales despite being overtaken in the first quarter by Toyota.

"We want to win. We want to be No. 1 by the end of the year, and we are going to compete for every sale to do it," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis.

Toyota has taken the first-quarter global sales lead, selling 2.41 million vehicles to GM's 2.25 million.

GM said yesterday its first-quarter worldwide sales dropped by less than 1 percent, but Toyota said its sales were up 2.7 percent during the first three months.

Last year, GM barely won the sales race. Toyota overtook GM as the world's top automaker in production last year.

A record 64 percent of GM's first-quarter sales came from outside the United States.

Strong demand in Europe supported Toyota's worldwide sales.

GM posted record sales in three of its four regions, but a 10 percent drop in North America dragged its numbers down. Sales were up 8 percent outside of North America, GM said.

DiGiovanni told analysts that GM is also focusing on profitable and sustainable growth, and tackling its problems in North America.

He said: "We are doing well in three regions. We are struggling a bit in North America. Our focus is on turning that business around."

Toyota said output of fuel-efficient small cars such as the Corolla grew strongly in China, while production of pickup trucks rose in Thailand during the quarter.

Some analysts say it's only a matter of time before Toyota overtakes GM in terms of annual global sales as well as production.

In the fiscal year through March, Toyota's global output rose 6.4 percent from a year earlier to 9.66 million vehicles.

Thomson Financial contributed to this report.