US computer giant Apple has released a version of its web browser Safari for Windows XP and Vista.

The browser will be competing head to head with Microsoft's popular Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla's Firefox.

According to California-based Apple, Safari 3 is currently the fastest browser running on Windows.

Apple said it can render web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, made the announcement at a conference of developers for Apple products in San Francisco, California, on Monday afternoon.

"We think Windows users are going to be really impressed when they see how fast and intuitive web browsing can be with Safari," he said.

"Hundreds of millions of Windows users already use iTunes, and we look forward to turning them on to Safari’s superior browsing experience too."

Safari 3 offers an "easy to use" bookmark manager, tabbed browsing and a built-in RSS reader to quickly scan the latest news and information.

Other Safari features include SnapBack, one-click access to an initial search query, and resizable text fields.

Microsoft's IE has a 78 per cent share of the browser market, while Safari holds just a 5 per cent share, according to market research firm IDC.

Safari 3 public beta is available as a free download at www.apple.com/safari.

The article Apple launches Safari for Windows originally appeared on 999 Today