``I can only say that we want to grow and we have the ambition to grow above the market average. Whether we can do that is still undecided,'' Vasella said in an interview published in the Wednesday edition of the Swiss financial newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft.

His comment was in response to a question about the outlook for 1999.

Following the slow developments in the first six months of 1998, Vasella said he had become more cautious.

``What I said in March did not take place and that has made be cautious. Nonetheless, and this is important, this doesn't change our long-term ambitions,'' he said.

Novartis said in March that it expected profitability to grow in 1998 despite a modest start in its drugs division.

Vasella said in the interview that Novartis would reachoperating margin goals from 1999.

``We will also achieve margin improvements after 1999, then without merger effects the margin can rise under the right market conditions,'' Vasella said.

He said more time was needed to get the group running smoothly following the merger that formed Novartis, but when this was done, there would also be operating improvements.

In addition, Vasella said he was relatively optimistic about pharmaceuticals sales in the United States in the third quarter, at least as compared with the first and second quarters of 1998.

Last month Novartis reported a 1998 first half net profit increase of 14 per cent to 3.55 billion Swiss francs, but an operating margin of 24.4 per cent, which was below analysts' expectations.

Vasella said share buybacks were also a consideration, but not while such a transaction was still unattractive with regard to taxation.