European award for BBC News Online

BBC News Online has been named the best European news site on the internet.

The award - described as Europe's most prestigious - was made in Zurich at an internet content conference on Wednesday.

Judges at the Interactive Publishing (IP) Awards rated sites in a number of categories, using computer-generated criteria.

BBC News won against what was described as tough competition from the Guardian Online and the German website Spiegel Online.

The BBC was said to have distinguished itself in its use of the world wide web as an interactive medium, especially in its coverage of the war against terror.

Its use of audio and video "put the site in front", along with its up-to-date coverage of international news.

The BBC's Jonathan Halls (right) accepts the award

The award was accepted on behalf of News Online by the BBC's Jonathan Halls who was in Zurich to speak at the content summit.

The award follows hard on the heels of BBC News Online's success in being named as Best News Site at the annual Baftas in October - the fourth such accolade in as many years.

The site was named Best News Site at the American Online Journalism Awards in San Francisco the following day, where it also took the award for the best coverage of a single story - the Concorde crash in 2000.

The site's health and environment teams have also won major awards in recent weeks.