The prototype of a wind-up laptop which costs at most US$100 has been unveiled; it is geared for the education of children in developing countries. The prototypes were presented to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the World Summit of the Information Society, under way in Tunis.

The highest-ranking expert of the Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte, showed the low-cost, colourful laptops for the first time. Their scope is to facilitate the education of millions of children in poor countries. The robust laptops have low-power consumption are the backbone of an education project which foresees free Internet connection. "This large-scale distribution holds the promise of major advances in economic and social development, but perhaps most important is the true meaning of one laptop per child," Mr Annan said. "Studies and experience have shown repeatedly that kids take to computers much more readily, not just in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote rural areas of the developing world."

The product will be distributed towards the end of next year, said Negroponte, a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US, in the hope that several thousand would be produced this year and more than 100 million by the end of 2007.

The non-profit "One Laptop per Child" project could eventually pave the way for supplementary parallel sales by a commercial partner in wealthy countries.