The latest version of the Firefox browser is now being used by 1.95 per cent of web users worldwide, according to a new report.

Figures from StatCounter show that that Firefox 3.5 has more than two per cent of the browser market in the US alone.

The browser was launched on June 30th after spending months in development.

According to StatCounter, all Firefox versions now represent 30.7 per cent of the global market and 31.8 per cent of the US browser sector.

Internet Explorer is still the top browser worldwide with a share of 60 per cent, while Google Chrome has a hold of 2.87 per cent.

"The fastest version yet of Firefox has certainly sprinted out of the blocks with 2.06 per cent usage in the US in a short time. This latest addition boosts competition for Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market wars," commented Aodhan Cullen, chief executive of StatCounter.

New features in Firefox 3.5 include a private browsing mode, a new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and location-aware browsing capabilities.

It also supports the audio and video elements of HTML 5 and new web technologies such as downloadable fonts, new transformations and properties, CSS media queries and JavaScript query selectors.