The US Justice Department has released 47 comments on the deal received from parties deemed to be "major".

Its results will be only a mild, temporary modification to Microsoft's well-documented behaviour, with no lasting or significant effect on competition

One of the comments

Only five of these comments, which contain detailed analysis of significant issues, supported the settlement.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who will consider the comments before making a decision on the settlement, has now decided that the hearing will take place on 6 March.

The anti-trust settlement, reached last year, followed a long legal battle between the software giant and US anti-trust lawyers.

Under its terms, Microsoft will be obliged to provide rival software firms with information to allow them to develop competing "middleware" products - in other words, software programs that interact with its Windows computer operating system.

Microsoft will also be prevented from "retaliating" against computer manufacturers and software rivals who bring out competing products, and must deal with licensing partners on uniform terms.

If the settlement is approved, a panel of independent monitors will oversee Microsoft's subsequent conduct and review its accounts.

Two-to-one against

The US Justice Department received 30,000 comments on the settlement, two thirds of which opposed the settlement.

Microsoft opponents, such as AOL Time Warner, were critical of the proposed settlement. AOL wrote that the settlement was "so loophole-ridden and exception-laden as to render its provisions ineffective".

Technology consultant Jonathan Gifford of New York wrote: "Its results will be only a mild, temporary modification to Microsoft's well-documented behaviour, with no lasting or significant effect on competition."

The Association for Competitive Technology, in a minority opinion, said the settlement would help "promote a vibrant, competitive IT industry and a vibrant IT marketplace in which consumers, not the government, pick winners and losers".

Nine states opposed

Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the issue was not about "keeping score" of "for" and "against" comments.

"The settlement is in the interest of the public, and we look forward to the court's review of it," he said.

The matter is separate from the proceedings of several states that have rejected the settlement.

The nine states and the District of Columbia want Ms Kollar-Kotelly to reject the settlement and are pushing for a stricter one.