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DUBLIN Jan 31 (Reuters) - The percentage of performing loans on the books of Ireland's state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) fell to 21 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2011 from 23 percent a quarter earlier.

One of the world's largest property groups, created to purge Irish banks of 74 billion euros ($97 billion) of risky land and development loans, NAMA said its lower percentage was largely due to the disposal of a number of income-generating assets.

NAMA said earlier this month that it approved sales of assets totallying 6.6 billion euros by the end of 2011 and said on Tuesday that it made a profit of 317 million euros during the third quarter of last year. ($1 = 0.7639 euros) (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)