ATLANTA · New Internet customers, continued growth in Latin America and strong sales of a multiple-service package helped BellSouth Corp. post a 37 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits.

The Atlanta-based telecommunications company said Thursday it earned $787 million, or 43 cents a share, for the three months ending Dec. 31, compared to $574 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items -- including foreign currency transaction gains, charges from a pension settlement and the sale at a loss of holdings in Brazil -- BellSouth said it earned $949 million, or 51 cents a share. That met earnings expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

For the entire year, BellSouth said it earned $3.9 billion, or $2.11 a share, compared to a profit of $1.32 million, or 71 cents a share in the previous year. Revenues for the year edged up to $22.63 billion from $22.44 billion in 2002.

"I think they did a very good job still growing consumer revenue, which I don't think is sustainable going forward," said analyst Patrick Comack, of Guzman & Co. in Miami.

In 2003, growth in BellSouth's long distance and high-speed Internet service offset declines in the number of traditional access lines.

BellSouth Answers -- a bundled package of local, long distance, Internet and wireless service -- increased to more than 3 million customers during the year.

And the company's Latin American business added 345,000 customers during the fourth quarter, to 9.7 million -- an 18.6 percent increase during the same time in 2002.

BellSouth's presence in Latin America bucks an industry trend that has seen some other major U.S. telecom companies reduce their exposure there amid economic and political turmoil.

"Today and in the future, our primary focus is on creating and retaining customers," BellSouth chief financial officer Ron Dykes said during a conference call with analysts.

BellSouth said revenues for the October-December quarter rose to $5.74 billion, from $5.69 billion in the year-ago period.

BellSouth also reported fourth-quarter gains from its 40 percent stake in mobile phone carrier Cingular Wireless. BellSouth's share of Cingular's revenues was $1.6 billion, a gain of 5.7 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.