CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Latin America's mobile phone market will continue rapid growth for at least three years until 75 percent of people in the region own a cellphone, U.S. mobile-maker Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news) said Wednesday.

Gustavo Wrobel, Motorola's Communications Director for Mobile Devices, quoted industry data showing cellphone penetration would rise to 50 percent by the end of 2006, up from 43 percent in 2005.

"For the next three years the region is going to continue growing and is going to reach levels similar to other parts of the world," the official from the world's second biggest mobile phone maker told Reuters by telephone.

"Perhaps three years from here, once the market has matured, we are going to enter a new phase in which growth is going to be tempered, but that will be when three out of four Latin Americans will definitely have a phone."

Wrobel said Motorola was the market-leader in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Its principal rival in Latin America is Finland's Nokia (NOK1V.HE).