anti-globalisation computer hackers who obtained credit card details from more than a thousand visitors to the Davos economic summit in Switzerland.

Organisers of the World Economic Forum said the hackers had obtained credit card details on 1400 people who attended recent Davos summit meetings.

But a Davos spokesman said it appeared no sensitive information had been obtained on thousands of other business and world leaders. The spokesman declined to name who had been affected.

Mr. Cox has attended the summit for the past two years and was accompanied by Premier Jennifer Smith last year. Leading Bermudian business figures have also attended.

Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung said world leaders and businesspeople such as former US President Bill Clinton, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had been targeted.

The newspaper said the hackers showed reporters a CD-ROM containing data on 27,000 people, including former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Mbeki, Arafat, and Li Peng, the second in command of the Chinese Communist Party.

Davos spokesman Charles McLean said yesterday it appeared the hackers had breached a database that contained information about people who attended Davos regional meetings.

Mr. Cox did not attend any of the regional meetings and has not yet been alerted by security staff at Davos.

Mr. McLean said yesterday that the breach was "in a remnant database that contained information about the participants in some of the regional meetings that had been held in the year 2000.

"So it seems as if the hackers were able to penetrate that particular database and obtain this information. They did not penetrate our main database. They did not penetrate the Davos database, apparently.'' But he added: "But for the 1,400 people they have some proprietory data like credit card numbers and other information which does concern us a great deal.

Mr. McLean added: "We regard this as a serious crime, not a prank.'' He said Davos lawyers will be taking legal action to prevent further dissemination of the information.

The Davos forum is e-mailing affected individuals and setting up a hotline for executives to phone if they want further details.

Mr. Cox said last night that he had not been contacted by Davos organisers.