By James B. Kelleher

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday as strong international sales more than offset what the company characterized as a "recessionary storm in the United States."

The news sent shares of Caterpillar -- the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI and a U.S. business bellwether -- up as much as 4.7 percent in premarket trade.

Construction booms outside North America, particularly in Russia, Africa and energy-producing regions like the Middle East, boosted results, and the weak U.S. dollar aided the company's competitiveness overseas.

First-quarter profit rose 13 percent to $922 million, or $1.45 a share, from $816 million, or $1.23 a share, a year earlier.

Sales increased 18 percent to $11.8 billion.

Analysts, on average, had expected the Peoria, Illinois-based company earn $1.33 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

"We continue to see robust demand for products used in the global mining and energy industries and for machines used by our customers to build infrastructure, particularly in emerging markets," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens said in a statement.

Caterpillar said it expects another "record year," with sales increasing 5 percent to 10 percent over 2007 and profit per share rising 5 percent to 15 percent. But it also forecast weakness in the U.S. residential construction and on-highway engine markets and "further weakening in North America."