Sophos, the fourth-largest anti-virus technology firm, said it sees more viruses and their cousin, the self-propagating worm, infecting computers in 2003, but their occurrence was not expected to accelerate significantly.

"Virus writers are most interested in creating the next super Windows worm, spread by e-mail or instant messaging, as these mass-mailing viruses carry the greatest impact," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, told a news conference.

"We expect more executable e-mail-aware worms this year, while more viruses are written which use instant messaging services."

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