But it said regulatory price changes had hit headline sales growth, taking 0.5 percentage points off its underlying sales figure. Analysts expect Boots Healthcare International to fetch at least £1bn.Boots said its focus on health and beauty was paying off, with a 5 per cent climb in the volume of medicines dispensed. The company has sent out a sales memorandum and at least 10 parties, including GlaxoSmithKline, are understood to have expressed an interest. Mr Baker stressed he was keen to sell the division as a "self-contained entity" but would consider offers for parts of it. Boots has already written off Christmas 2005, it revealed yesterday as it reported its second consecutive fall in quarterly sales at its core chemists' chain.

Richard Baker, the chief executive, said the group was not planning on any "sales upside" this Christmas "We are being much more cautious," he said. The company has bought less stock than last year but expects profit margins to benefit from better buying. Mr Baker added: "The market is pretty ugly It will be a week-to-week battle to Christmas and beyond. We've seen nothing over the last couple of months to suggest it will get any easier."Mr Baker's comments came as the group said first-quarter underlying sales at Boots The Chemists slipped 0.8 per cent. Although this was below the 0-2 per cent like-for-like sales growth the group has guided the City to expect for the full year, its shares rose 2.5p to 615.5p in relief that trading had not worsened.Its healthcare business, home to Neurofen, Clearasil and Strepsil, put in a good quarter before its forthcoming disposal, with a 6.8 per cent rise in like-for-like sales. Speaking as the chairman of the main practitioner panel, Mr Bloomer revealed that he would be stepping down from this position in November.Answering questions from the media after the conference, Sir Callum refused to provide an update as to when the regulator would conclude enforcement dealings with the handful of companies and individuals who are still under investigation for their involvement in the split-cap investment trust d?cle. When the majority of groups involved entered into a settlement in December, the FSA said it hoped to conclude enforcement actions with the remainder by March..

Jonathan Bloomer, the former chief executive of Prudential, made his first appearance since stepping down in May from the life insurance giant. But more than 150,000 children may now starve to death before they get access to emergency food and medication.Jan Egeland, the under-secretary general of the UN, said yesterday that if the international community had responded to Niger's appeals for help last year, a child could have been saved from malnourishment for as little as $1 (57p) a day. Now, it will cost eighty times as much to save each of the 150,000 children who are on the verge of starving to death. He said: "We will get funding for Niger, images are coming out of children dying. But it is too late for those who are severely malnourished and dying."Both rich countries and the government of Niger have been criticised for ignoring the plight of 3.5 million people who were left without food after a plague of locusts and a drought destroyed their crops last year. The Niger President, Mamadou Tandja, has visited the worst-hit areas in the south of the country to assess the situation personally, after the government had earlier refused to donate free food to the starving.