PARIS (Reuters) ? French insurer Axa said yesterday its net profit more than doubled last year, beating forecasts, with help from strong life insurance and money management results and tight expense controls. Axa, one of Europe?s biggest insurers, also gave robust growth figures for new life insurance business, which indicated future profitability and lifted the stock. It said it plans to raise its annual dividend 61 percent to 0.61 euro a share.

A global need to save for retirement, given dwindling state funds, has spurred sales of life insurance policies and savings plans. Meanwhile, risks ranging from terror attacks to lawsuits have driven demand for property and casualty insurance.

Axa earned 2.52 billion euros ($3.33 billion) last year versus 1.01 billion in 2003, beating the top of a range of forecasts from ten analysts polled by Reuters.