BRUSSELS, Feb 22: Eurozone factories saw demand rise in December as new industrial orders rose to the highest level in 10 years, figures by the Eurostat data agency showed on Thursday.

New orders in the 12 nations sharing the euro in December -- Slovenia adopted the currency in January -- grew 2.8 per cent over one month and 1.6 per cent over one year. A Eurostat official said the December increase brought the index to the highest level since 1996.

The result also beat private economists' forecasts for an increase of only 0.3 per cent over one month and 0.5 per cent over one year, as polled by financial news agency AFX News.

The previous month new orders grew 1.1 per cent over one month and 6.0 per cent over one year, Eurostat said, trimming first estimates slightly.

The December increase was drived by strong orders for transport equipment, followed by basic metals and fabricated metal products, textile products, and chemicals products. For the whole of 2006, average new industrial orders grew 9.1 per cent.—AFP