NEW YORK (Reuters) - Staples Inc (SPLS.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the No. 1 U.S. office supplies retailer, reported a higher quarterly profit on Tuesday that matched Wall Street's expectations, and stood by its outlook for the full year.

The retailer, which has launched a hostile bid to buy smaller Dutch rival Corporate Express NV CXP.AS, warned it expects weak economic conditions to persist through 2008, and that it could not say when things would start to look up.

Still, its shares rose as much as 1.9 percent, which one analyst said was due to its implied per-share annual outlook that was slightly above consensus.

Staples earlier forecast mid single-digit sales growth and high single-digit earnings growth for the full year, excluding the impact of a litigation settlement in 2007.

That, Sanford Bernstein analyst Colin McGranahan said, implied an outlook in the range of $1.52 to $1.55 a share. Analysts, on average, expect $1.51 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

"We believe general expectations heading into the report were relatively low, with concerns around the sector and outlook given weakness in the environment," McGranahan wrote in a note.

Earnings were $212 million, or 30 cents per share, in the first quarter that ended May 3, compared with $209 million, or 29 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Quarterly sales rose 6 percent to $4.9 billion. While international same-store sales rose 4 percent in the quarter, North American retail same-store sales fell 6 percent.

"When you report a (negative 6 percent) same-store sales, the monthly trend is bad, bad, and bad," Chief Executive Ron Sargent said during a conference call.