The service comes at an opportune time what with Uncle Sam on the brink of an invasion of Iraq. As with the telly, the Net service will beam live footage of breaking news of the day. Some coverage will have an anchor. There will be news summaries every half hour and rebroadcasts.

A report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that the online channel will initially be available to subscribers to the existing ABC News On Demand broadband service, which lets users who pay $4.95 a month view taped ABC News clips and programmes.

ABC is a subsidiary of Disney. In a bid to generate further revenue the mouse could look at offering the service through other broadband providers, such as cable systems and telephone companies.