McDonald's said today that global sales at outlets open at least a year rose 8.2 percent in November, more than was expected.

The company also said that in the United States comparable sales rose 4.4 percent, citing strength in its breakfast business and sales of premium roast coffee.

Coffee has played an important role in steadily rising sales at McDonald's. The company began a big campaign to promote its coffee last year, and its Mickey D's java scored well against Starbucks and others in a blind taste test by Consumer Reports earlier this year.

McDonald's gains appear to have come at the expense of Starbucks, which said last month that the number of visitors to its U.S. stores fell in the quarter for the first time in its history.

In a sign of how important coffee is to its business, on Friday McDonald's agreed to pay its U.S. franchisees 40 percent of the expenses of installing espresso machines and the resulting remodeling—costs that can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

Espresso and cappuccino drinks are now sold at more than 800 outlets; McDonald's wants them to be available at all 13,800 stores in the U.S.

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