HELSINKI Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:06am EDT

(Reuters) - Nokia said on Tuesday its phone sales fell 30 percent in the last quarter they belonged to the previous world-market leader and the unit's loss widened.

Nokia's discontinued operations - the phone unit - posted a drop in first-quarter sales to 1.9 billion euros ($2.6 billion)from 2.8 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. The operating loss widened to 306 million from 73 million.

The Finnish company said the sales decline resulted primarily from decreasing demand for its cheaper phones, but smartphone sales also fell.

Microsoft bought Nokia's phone unit for 5.6 billion euros in a deal that closed on Friday. ($1 = 0.7223 euros)