Warning over Internet 'hate sites'

The sites, which offer everything from Nazi symbols to Aryan dating agencies, are part of a worldwide network of sites supporting religious, gender and ethnic intolerance.

Lawyers argue that a lack of Internet regulation means that such sites can exist without fear of prosecution.

One legal expert told the BBC: "Unless there is an immediate fear that someone will be hurt, it is unlikely that any action [against a site] can be made.

"There are also problems surrounding international jurisdiction laws and the fact that the Net is potentially anonymous. So the legal situation is very complex indeed."

In the US a student at the University of California is being prosecuted for sending hate-mail to 60 Asian-American students.

Richard Machado had sent e-mail massages which began "I hate Asians ... I will hunt you down and kill you." Mr Machado's lawyer has argued that a successful prosecution against his client would effectively criminalise e-mail on a medium that is already crowded with anti-social messages.

But civil rights campaigners argue that the Internet is fast becoming a powerfully persuasive medium.

"If I give voice to my weird ideas on the street people would give me a very wide berth," says Jerrold Post, an author specialising in the Internet. "But if I tap into the Net in the privacy of my own home there are over 300 hate groups. And there are a lot of people out there waiting to be influenced by my ideas."

Many of the hate-sites originate in the United States and are of growing concern to US political leaders who admit that hate-crimes now play an increasing role in bias-driven violence.

The warning comes as President Clinton unveils new steps to expand federal hate-crime laws, adding gender, sexual orientation and disability to the list of previous "characteristics".

The President was announcing the measures to more than 300 civil rights activists, police officials and religious leaders at a conference on hate-crimes at George-Washington University.

"What we want to get across is that hate-crimes [are] something that we will not tolerate in this country," said the White House Director of Public Liaison, Maria Achaveste.

"We are looking at strategies and methods for ensuring these kinds of crimes are reduced if not outright eliminated," she said.

In 1995, the latest year for which figures are available, more than 10,000 crimes of bias were reported in the US. But officials said the actual rate was probably much higher because victims were often unwilling to report the crimes.