UPDATE 4-Philip Morris Q1 profit beats Street, shares up

* Q1 shr $0.74 beats Wall Street by 5 cents

* Cigarette volume remains unchanged

* Price increases help

* Backs 2009 profit forecast

* Shares up 2.2 pct (Adds conf call comments, analyst comments, byline)

By Dhanya Skariachan

BANGALORE, April 23 (Reuters) - A better-than-expected profit at Marlboro-seller Philip Morris International Inc (PM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) showed most smokers are still lighting up their favorite brands despite the global slowdown.

The world's largest publicly traded tobacco company, which markets Philip Morris' brands outside the United States and was spun off from Altria Group Inc (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) last year to give shareholders a pure foreign cigarette market play, reported a strong quarterly profit on price increases and weaker-than-expected currency headwinds.

First-quarter earnings at Philip Morris were $1.52 billion, or 74 cents a share, compared with $1.72 billion, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier.