Microsoft Corp will release a new version of Internet Explorer, the world's most widely used Web browsing software, with stronger, built-in security features, chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday. The move is the latest in Microsoft's three-year effort to beef up security to protect its software products which are the most-targeted by malicious programmers. The company has made three security software-related acquisitions, with two of those coming in the past few months.

"We have decided to do a new version of Internet Explorer, this is IE 7," Gates said at the RSA Security Conference being held in San Francisco.

The world's largest software maker had not previously indicated whether it planned to release a new version of IE. A new browser version with improved security and other features can help Microsoft fend-off small, but fast-growing competition from alternative browsers, analysts said.

Copyright Reuters, 2005