"We proposed some solutions to stop receiving unwanted messages. In the next 18 months, spam will no longer be a serious problem," Gates told a forum of Arab government representatives in the Egyptian capital.

Spam accounted for nearly two-thirds of all email traffic in December, a record high, US-British filter firm MessageLabs said earlier this month.

The phenomenon is not just widely considered to be irritating or offensive.

It also carries a spiralling economic cost, because firms have to boost computer processing power and storage to cope with the rising tide and employees have to spend time deleting unwanted mail.

Gates also underlined the importance of electronic government.

"A lot of countries want to enter into this efficient way of running government. Microsoft wants to be part of this," said the US billionaire, making his first visit to Egypt.

"There are some great projects in Asia and the Middle East. Surprisingly, small governments have done better," he said, giving an assurance that e-government would not come at the expense of jobs.

Gates met President Hosni Mubarak here earlier Sunday after inaugurating the Egyptian government's first web portal.

Telecommunications Minister Ahmed Nazif told MENA that the founder of Microsoft expressed his support for the Egyptian government's information technology drive.

Mubarak has set a 2007 target date for most government services to be available online, the minister told reporters.

Gates inaugurated the portal, which is designed to provide round-the-clock government services, with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid after flying in on Saturday.

The Microsoft chairman was due to sign a cooperation accord between his firm and Egypt's telecommunications ministry as well as attend a Cairo conference of the company's almost 2,000 employees in the region.

SPACE.WIRE