However, the authors of the study acknowledge that it is unknown what form that role could take in the future, but say they are convinced technology will be a protagonist whose path will be determined by the decisions that are taken today.

Dennis Pamlin, policy adviser at WWF-Sweden and editor of the report, predicts that this role will be revealed before the end of the first decade of the new century.

It will then be known whether information and communication technology (ICT) is being utilised towards sustainable development, or if is being used only by "influential groups" trying to exploit it to reap short-term gains, he said.

Although ICT can produce positive results if it is oriented towards sustainable development, the WWF warns in the report -- titled "Sustainability at the Speed of Light" -- that such technology is not a panacea for the world's environmental and social problems.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, which begins next week in the northern South African city of Johannesburg, is to assess the development efforts made since 1992, when Rio de Janeiro hosted the Earth Summit, and to set new targets.

The central focus of the Johannesburg Summit, which runs Aug 26 to Sep 4, is worldwide sustainable development.

The WWF (also known as Worldwide Fund for Nature) study also covers the problem of the so-called "digital divide", evident in the unequal expansion of the Internet in industrialised and developing countries.

There are more Internet users in Manhattan, the heart of New York City, than on the entire African continent, while the total for Finland surpasses all of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to Anders Wijkman and Mona Afifi, two of the study's authors.

They pointed out that in India, in spite of the notable progress achieved in ICT applications, most villages still do not have functioning telephones.

The WWF report stems from the position that many of the current ecological, social and economic trends worldwide run counter to sustainable development and destroy some of the planet's most beautiful areas.

A great number of plant and animal species face extinction as a result of human activities, which contaminate the land, atmosphere and water over the entire Earth.

In this context, ICT, defined as any product or system that communicates, stores or processes information, is critical for the future of humanity, according to the statements of Lars Kristoferson, secretary of WWF-Sweden, and Claude Martin, director of WWF International, in the presentation of the study Wednesday.

Until just a few years ago, the various types of ICT were used primarily in the production of newspapers and radio and television programming.

With the latest computers and advances in communications, the impact of ICT can be seen, for example, in the "smart homes", in which various components of the living space -- from the heating system to the refrigerator -- are able to communicate among themselves and with the rest of the world.

Using innovations derived from such usage, ICT could help "save energy through remote energy management of commercial and residential buildings" and could "curb the rapid growth of transportation and business travel" through trade and videoconferences conducted via the Internet.

And in the area of environmental conservation, the study states that such technology can be utilised to set up more efficient systems for monitoring land use, such as satellite tracking of illegal logging.

The WWF document states that ICT has so far achieved only marginal changes, and urges implementation of technologies aimed at structural transformations.

The most important contributions ICT can make towards sustainable development will be achieved when structural changes are made in the world's current economic framework, said report editor Pamlin.

Industrialised countries should shift their emphasis from the supply of material goods to provision of better and smarter services, he said.

In developing countries, meanwhile, ICT should be aimed at ensuring that "everyone can meet their basic needs". It should also serve to give poor nations an economic and social leg-up in overcoming waste and pollution.

With regards to the digital divide, Pamlin says that it should be confronted at the same time as the other deeper and age-old economic gap that separates the rich countries from the poor.

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