Microsoft said it will unveil a public beta of Internet Explorer 7 in the first quarter of 2006.The announcement is available at the company's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com.

"We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to try a pre-release version of IE7 and tell us how it works with their web sites, their applications, their add-ons, and how they use the web overall," wrote Dean Hachomovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer team.

A frist beta of Microsoft's forthcoming browser was released last October and is available only to a select number of testers through the Windows Vista Technical Beta Programme, MSDN and Technet.

Internet Explorer 7 will reportedly feature improvements in security and usability. The user among things will be notified when he visits a knows phishing website and the browser will offer tabs.

The final version of the application has been promised for the summer of 2006. The application was originally scheduled for release together with Windows Vista, which is slated for release late 2006.