MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of palladium and nickel, boosted revenue according to Russian Accounting Standards by 59% in the first three months of 2007, year-on-year, to 69.6 billion rubles ($2.7 billion), the company said Tuesday.

Among other things, a sales rise and ruble-dollar fluctuations pushed the figure up, the company said.

Earlier reports said the company's RAS net profit in the first quarter of 2007 amounted to 34.7 billion rubles ($1.3 billion), compared to a loss of 22.6 billion rubles ($875.63 million) in the same period of last year.

Norilsk Nickel is one of the world's top producers of precious and non-ferrous metals. It accounts for over 20% of the global nickel output, more than 10% of cobalt and 3% of copper. Norilsk Nickel produces about 96% of all Russian nickel, 55% of copper and 95% of cobalt.