LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - UK investors put a record

6.97 billion pounds ($8.82 billion) into equity funds in the

first quarter, led by demand for North American equities, fund

network Calastone said on Thursday.

North American equity funds saw record inflows of 5.72

billion pounds over the quarter, Calastone said in a statement.

"The U.S. earnings recession is over - profits are once

again on the up and that seems to be the main catalyst driving

fund inflows and higher share prices," said Edward Glyn, head of

global markets at Calastone.

Global and emerging market equity funds also enjoyed

inflows, but UK investors continued to withdraw money from

domestic equity funds, taking out a total of 2.13 billion pounds

over the quarter.

"UK equities are certainly cheap, but investors worry where

the growth is going to come from," Glyn said.

Calastone's figures, which mainly track retail investor

decisions, are not comprehensive, but give a good sense of UK

flows.

($1 = 0.7903 pounds)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Costas Pitas)