A top Infoseek executive was apparently fired after he was arrested by the FBI and accused of using the Internet - sometimes from his office computer - to solicit sex from a 13-year-old girl.

Mr Patrick J. Naughton, who was also responsible for some of Walt Disney's key Internet efforts, "is no longer an employee of Infoseek", according to a statement from the company.

Infoseek, a leading Internet search engine, is already controlled by Disney and is being acquired by the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant.

Though technically an Infoseek employee, Mr Naughton (34), was executive vice-president products for the Go Network, Disney's flagship brand in cyberspace.

Executives from Infoseek and Disney were not available for comment. But Mr Harry Motro, president and chief executive of Infoseek, distributed an e-mail to employees saying Mr Naughton was no longer with the company and that he was shifting some of Mr Naughton's responsibilities to other executives.

Mr Naughton, a Seattle resident who was released after agreeing to post a $100,000 (€95,438) bond, did not return phone calls.

His arrest and departure from Infoseek appear to mark the unraveling of a stellar Silicon Valley career. Mr Naughton was part of a team at Sun Microsystems that created the Java programming language and was also president at Starwave, an influential Web design company.

He was arrested at the Santa Monica Pier after arriving for an expected rendezvous with a teenager he met in a chat room known to be a place where adult men solicit young girls, according to the FBI.

The arrest capped a six-month investigation during which Mr Naughton - using the sign-on "hotseattle" - allegedly corresponded with a male FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old girl.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Mr Naughton repeatedly bragged online about his high-profile job. He also proclaimed his desire to have sex with his electronic correspondent.