"It is hard to say if the worst time for European telecom operators has passed. I expect a similar industry growth rate worldwide this year as to that in 2012," he said.

Global spending on carrier infrastructure slipped 6.6 percent to $77.3 billion in 2012, and is expected to grow only 3.4 percent in 2013, according to Gartner Research.

The domestic market is still going to be one of the highlights for Huawei's business this year, Xu said, thanks to the explosive growth of data traffic in operators' networks.

Chinese government officials have sent clear signals that they will support fourth-generation mobile network construction in the country.

China Mobile Ltd, the nation's largest telecom operator, announced its capital spending will jump 49 percent year-on-year to 190.2 billion yuan in 2013. More than half of the company's spending on networks - 42 billion yuan - will go on 4G projects this year.

"4G projects in China are unlikely to create a significant boost for Huawei's revenue this year," Xu said. He said that if all the imminent 4G project investment is added up, it is still a small sum compared with Huawei's annual sales.

Xu said Huawei currently does not target the United States as a key market.

Both Huawei and ZTE were banned from making acquisitions and supplying equipment to network operators in the US due to some "potential national security concerns".

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