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Microsoft intends to reinstate support for rival Sun Microsystems' Java programming language, and then again drop support entirely within two years.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said yesterday the company would no longer include Sun's Java programming language in its Windows operating system starting in 2004, citing security concerns.

He blamed the decision on a previous antitrust settlement between the two companies prohibiting Microsoft from making any changes to the Java software that it includes in Windows.

'If there's a security problem found, we can't fix it,' he said.

Sun is among Microsoft's most bitter rivals and its Java software, a computer language designed to run on different operating systems, is seen by many as a challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the software industry.

Gong Li, the managing director of the Sun China Engineering and Research Institute in Beijing, said: 'Given the level of security that the Windows platform has, it is amusing that Microsoft should cite security concerns for not supporting Java. Especially considering that Java was originally designed with security in mind - it was not an after-thought as with Microsoft.'

Mr Gong, who was the chief Java security architect at Sun during the development of Java, said Microsoft's new emphasis on security reminded him of the Chinese saying 'to repair the fence after the sheep is gone'. 'They are trying to make up for not having understood the issues to begin with,' he said.

Mr Gong said that Microsoft had serious security problems. 'In the past year, there have been so many security incidents concerning Windows that most people have stopped counting them. Microsoft's various Windows operating systems have suffered a number of high-profile security incidents recently, whereas Java has become the de facto secure platform for e-commerce. '

For the average user, the spat may not mean much, with some of the leading hardware companies saying they would be including Java no matter what Microsoft did.

The announcement came a day before attorneys for Microsoft and nine states were scheduled to make their final arguments before a federal judge about what antitrust sanctions should be imposed on the company.

Mr Cullinan said the timing of the announcement was odd. But he said it had nothing to do with the antitrust case.

Microsoft initially dropped Java from its new Windows XP operating system, which was released last autumn. But on Tuesday it announced it would start including the programming language in an update of Windows at the end of the summer, and keep it until 2004.

Sun said that the decision would provide 'at least temporary relief for both consumers and software developers'.

But Sun called the decision to drop Java in 2004 unfortunate and said it was 'calculated to coerce consumers and developers who prefer the Java platform to nonetheless abandon that platform'.

Last year a federal appeals court upheld trial court findings that Microsoft used illegal tactics to maintain its Windows monopoly in personal computer operating systems.

Among the proposed sanctions is a provision that would force Microsoft to include Java in the Windows operating system.

The federal judge in Microsoft's antitrust trial indicated for the first time on Tuesday that she was questioning the Government's proposed settlement, which she could reject if she found that it was not in the public interest.

In an unexpected order issued on Tuesday afternoon, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told Microsoft and the states to be ready to answer questions about how their respective proposals could be modified to make the terms acceptable.

'As the defendant is well aware, its proposal has been criticised' for containing so many exceptions that the effectiveness of its restrictions would be undermined, she wrote. She ordered Microsoft lawyers to be prepared to indicate places where the proposal could be tightened.

The Justice Department, Microsoft and lawyers for the states declined to comment on the order on Tuesday.

'This has got to be chilling to you as the Federal Government and Microsoft,' said Andrew Gavil, an antitrust professor at Howard University who has followed the case closely.

'She has accepted to some extent that there are loopholes in the settlement.'

In March, Sun filed another private lawsuit against the software giant, claiming its business was damaged by Microsoft's abusive monopoly. In its latest lawsuit, Sun seeks damages of more than US$1 billion. Under antitrust legislation, the courts would triple that award.



Microsoft in U-turn on Java