The region's use of e-commerce is rising but still falls short of national trends in key areas.

According to figures from the DTI-led UK Online for Business programme, 74 per cent per cent of business in the South West now uses a web site, or makes frequent use of external e-mail or uses an electronic data interchange compared with 52 per cent last year.

The figures, from the annual International Bench-marking Study 2000, also show that more than four fifths (89 per cent) of business in the South West now has access to the internet, compared with 56 per cent last year an increase of 59 per cent.

In addition 58 per cent uses a web site to market their business compared with 42 per cent last year.

Patricia Hewitt, the e-commerce Minister said: "I am hugely encouraged to see that more businesses in the South West are joining the information age.

"However, businesses must look to extend and expand the way in which they use e-commerce if they are to gain the true benefits and the UK is to become the leading environment in the world for doing business electronically."

The South West performs above the national average in terms of the way it uses e-commerce in a number of areas. This includes identifying potential suppliers, paying for supplies online, sending customer invoices online, and the proportion of employees using a personal computers on a daily basis.

However, the region has one of the smallest proportion of businesses in the UK trading online at 24 per cent.

It also performs below the national average in a number of areas.

These include letting customers check availability of products and services, and order and pay online.

As part of the announcement Patricia Hewitt also launched a £5.5 million Internet Mentoring Initiative to help internet start-ups and established SMEs who intend to make the Internet the primary means of carrying out their business.