FRANKFURT, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The German automobile federation VDA said Thursday it would be difficult to achieve its target of 3.2 million new car registrations this year after the figure slipped slightly in September.

After falling 10 percent in August, registrations slid two percent in September compared to the same month last year to 261,400 units, a VDA spokesman told AFP, despite two more business days than a year earlier.

The federation had forecast a strong rebound last month.

It cited 'growing insecurity in households' in Europe's biggest economy about finances amid a downturn in growth.

The VDA had forecast a total of 3.2 million new car registrations for all of 2008. That would have been a slight improvement over 2007, which suffered from the effects of a three-point increase in the national value-added tax.