A new Internet worm named "Bin Laden" has begun spreading across China. But so far it has not
caused serious damage.

   The new worm appears in the attachment of the e-mail as "BINLADEN-BRAZIL.EXE," explained Xia Ji, a senior engineer with Beijing-based Kingsoft CO. Ltd.

   Such an .exe file will generate a great variety of other files, which will be very difficult to totally delete once opened, Xia said, quoted by Wednesday's China Daily.

   However, the "Bin Laden" worm will not cause a fatal crash. But it may occupy part of system resources and therefore slow down a computers' running speed.

   Chatting boxes with jeering words against the U.S. president George W. Bush will appear on the screens of infected computers each time they are started, Xia said.

   The "Bin Laden" virus spreads mainly through the popular on-line chatting software "ICQ," said Ma Jie, a technician with Beijing Rising Technology, one of the country's leading anti-virus software developers. The virus can automatically search ICQ's e-mail addresses and send infected mail.

   According to the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center in Tianjin, the new viruses named after Bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 tragedy, have emerged since the U.S.-led forces launched raids against the Taliban regime last month.