(Reuters) - Germany's Daimler Truck AG posted first-quarter core profit of 1.21 billion euros ($1.30 billion) on Friday, beating the consensus estimate of 1.17 billion euros in a company poll, driven by a strong performance of its Trucks North America business.

First-quarter core profit (adjusted earnings before interest and taxes) at Daimler Truck's North American business rose 7% year-on-year in the first quarter compared to 4% across Daimler Truck as a whole.

Core profit at Daimler Truck's Mercedes-Benz business, which focuses on Europe, fell 4% on this time last year with the figure falling 39% for the Trucks Asia segment.

Daimler Truck last year made almost 45% of its sales in North America and about a third in Europe.

($1 = 0.9317 euros)

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Louis van Boxel-Woolf and Isabel Demetz, Editing by Miranda Murray)