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Sony is planning to start buying TV-use liquid crystal display panels from Sharp as early as in the next business year that begins in April, Reuters reported on Sunday citing a source close to the matter.

Sony currently runs an LCD panel joint venture with Samsung Electronics, but procurement from Sharp is expected to help it secure enough panels to meet fast-growing LCD TV demand without heavy capital investments.

Samsung and Sony compete for the top spot in the global LCD TV market.

For Sharp, another major LCD TV maker, expanding a pool of customers for its LCD panels is important as it is ramping up its panel production capacity aggressively.

The Osaka-based company said last month it plans to boost output capacity at its latest panel plant by 50 percent by July.

Sharp is also building the world's largest LCD panel factory, spending 380 billion yen ($3.55 billion). The plant is slated to come onstream by March 2010.

The Nikkei business daily said in its Saturday morning edition that Sony is in the final stages of talks with Sharp to buy large-sized LCD panels.

Sony aims to double LCD TV sales to about 20 million units in the business year starting April, and the volume of its panel procurement from Sharp will likely come to the equivalent of 3 to 5 million 40-inch-class panels in the following year, the Nikkei said.