The top US legal officer to rule on fining Microsoft

The United States Attorney-General, Janet Reno, will rule today on whether the computer software giant, Microsoft, should be fined a million dollars a day for contempt of court.

Last month a judge ordered Microsoft to remove the Internet browser programme, Explorer, from its Windows-95 computer-operating system.

As Windows-95 is used on about ninety per cent of the world's computers, rival manufacturers of browsers have complained that Microsoft's insistence on adding the Explorer programme is a breach of US anti-monopoly laws.

Microsoft has refused to obey the order saying it has the right to package its products as it wants.

Browser programmes allow computer users to find information on the Internet.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service