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BRUSSELS, May 16 (Reuters) - Belgium's dominant telecom operator Belgacom (BCOM.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a worse than expected 3 percent drop in first-quarter sales on Friday, but reiterated its financial targets for the whole of 2008.

Belgacom's first-quarter sales fell to 1.469 billion euros

($2.28 billion) from 1.515 billion euros a year earlier and against a Reuters Estimates poll of 8 analysts gave an average expectation of 1.496 billion euros.

Belgacom said that price cuts imposed by European and local regulators were the cause of the decline.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation

(EBITDA) came in at 518 million euros, down 3.3 percent from 536 million euros last year while the analysts polled by Reuters expected on average 519 million euros.

Net income fell to 236 million euros from 319 million euros as a result of the EBITDA decrease and because of a capital gain in the first quarter of 2007.