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LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) British fashion house Burberry Group Plc said it was on track to meet full-year expectations as it posted a 19 percent rise in first-quarter revenue on Wednesday and signalled a US expansion.

''The strong first-quarter results reflect the continued momentum of Burberry's retail operations across our primary product categories and geographical regions,'' finance director Stacey Cartwright told reporters.

At 0845 GMT, Burberry shares, which had underperformed other stocks in the FTSE mid-cap index by 10 percent over the past 12 months, were up 0.9 percent at 464.25 pence to value the business at 2.05 billion pounds ($3.8 billion).

Cartwright said given Burberry's main sales areas, Europe and Japan, make up 75 percent of sales, ''there is so much more to go for'' not least because retail sales in the United States, where it has 36 stores, are on a par with those in Spain.

''Now there are different distribution channels, but for the U.S. market to be only the same size as the Spanish market shows the sheer potential,'' she said. ''We have talked about anywhere between 50 and 60 (U.S. stores) being very feasible''.

Burberry, long famous for its camel, red and black check design, said revenue rose to 135 million pounds ($248 million) in the three months to end-June, led by a 30 percent increase in sales in Asia to 41 million pounds.

Retail sales rose 35 percent, or 19 percent on an underlying basis, to 82 million pounds to account for 61 percent of the total, ''driven by contributions from newly opened stores and strong gains at existing stores,'' the company said.

Merrill Lynch analyst Antoine Colonna said: ''Given the lower contribution of the first quarter to full-year sales, we prefer to leave our estimates unchanged at this point.

''However, numbers were good across all products categories and regions, suggesting that the issues that have affected previous collections are being addressed,'' he said in a note.

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