By James Regan

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - First-quarter operating profit at Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) fell a worse-than-expected 15 percent as the global financial crisis hit results at Postbank (DPBGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and its U.S. express delivery business disappointed.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) slumped to 851 million euros ($1.32 billion) from 998 million a year ago, Deutsche Post said. The average forecast in a Reuters poll of 18 analysts was for quarterly EBIT of 930 million euros.

Operating profit at the German mail and logistics group's DHL Express division fell almost a third to 21 million euros, pulled down by another quarter of losses in the United States.

The quarter also had two fewer working days than a year ago, Post said in a statement on Wednesday.

Underlying EBIT before non-recurring effects rose 6.4 percent to 1.03 billion euros, Post added.

"Given the working day effect and the faltering U.S. economy, business was very satisfactory in the first quarter," Chief Financial Officer John Allan said.

The company reiterated that it expects EBIT before non-recurring effects of around 4.2 billion euros for 2008 and pretax profit of around 3.2 billion. The company was also still aiming for EBIT of 4.7 billion euros in 2009.

Deutsche Post's shares fell 0.8 percent to 20.20 euros by 0933 GMT, compared with a 0.1 percent easier German blue-chip DAX index .GDAXI.