It has given the the new group two years to study spam and develop a counter strategy.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a statement the task force would improve the way work on key aspects of the problem was focused and would improve coordination between various bodies looking at the issue.

Key objectives included coordinating international policy, encouraging best practice in industry and business, promoting new technical defences, informing consumers, and facilitating cross-border law enforcement.

On September 8 and 9, OECD member countries would hold a meeting in South Korea on fighting spam as a follow-up to their inaugural one in Brussels in February.

Regulators from about 60 countries met in early July at the United Nation's telecommunications agency to try to stop the growing tide of spam that threatens to drive users and businesses off the Internet.

Some studies indicate that unwanted advertising now accounts for up to 75 or 85 percent of inbound electronic mail, according to the UN's International Telecommunications Union.

An EU study has estimated that the worldwide cost to Internet subscribers of spam is around 10 billion euros (12.3 billion dollars) a year, not least because of hours lost deleting such messages from e-mail in-boxes.

SPACE.WIRE