The Department of Public Enterprise and the Minister, Ms O'Rourke, who are seeking to develop Ireland as a so-called e-commerce hub will read with interest suggestions that Britain is slipping behind in its goal to be the European centre for business on the Internet.

The main reason for this, according to Mr Jim Norton, who heads a special British government task force on e-commerce, is inertia rather than cost or fear.

He told a conference this week that Germany had caught up with Britain but that Prime Minister Tony Blair still aimed to make Britain the European-hub for electronic commerce by 2002.

He said statistics showed Germany had pulled in front as the EU member-state where business used the Internet the most. Some 65 per cent of German businesses had access to the Internet, compared with 62 per cent in Britain, 61 per cent in the US and 34 per cent in France.

The percentage using the Net for online sales was nine in both Britain and Germany, and three in France.