Japanese consumer electronics giant has reported slumping sales and profits for the three months to end-June.

Sony said restructuring costs were behind the 98% plunge in net profits to 1.1bn yen ($9.3m; £5.8m) compared with the same period of 2002.

Total sales were down 6.9% to 1.6 trillion yen as PlayStation2 games consoles and Trinitron TVs sold poorly.

Sony announced a mammoth restructuring in April, designed to take three years and cost 1 trillion yen.

The revamp focuses on Sony's consumer electronics division which includes PCs, mobile phones and camcorders.

The group plans to fold its unprofitable businesses and consolidate its production in fewer factories.

Below expectations

The second quarter figures represented an improvement on the first three months of 2003, when Sony dived into loss and warned of scant profits for the 12 months to March 2004.

Nonetheless, they were below sector-watchers expectations of a 89% fall in profits, according to Reuters.

"During the first quarter... Sony began preparations to implement our restructuring plan and growth strategy while at the same time improving the competitiveness of our products, primarily in the electronics segment," said Sony chairman and chief executive Nobuyuki Idei.

Shipments of the PlayStation 2 games console dropped 42% on year-earlier to 2.65 million units in the April-June period.