Jan 5 - Next, Britain's No. 2 fashion retailer, posted a slightly worse than expected fall in underlying store sales at Christmas, blaming the hit to trade from snow in December.

Next store in London

The group, which runs over 500 stores in Britain and Ireland, said on Wednesday sales at shops open at least a year fell 6.1 percent in the period Aug. 1 to Dec. 24, the bulk of its second half.

That compares with analysts' forecasts of down 3-6 percent, according to a Reuters poll, and a fall of 3.3 percent in the third-quarter.

However, sales at Next's Directory home shopping business climbed 8.7 percent, compared with analysts' forecasts of up 6-9 percent and third-quarter growth of 7.9 percent.

Next guided that full-year pretax profit will be in the range of 540-555 million pounds, in line with current market expectations.

(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Mark Potter)