BRUSSELS RECEIVED a visitor yesterday in the shape of Intel's CEO Paul Otellini who flew in specially to defend Chipzilla from allegations that it used rebates to induce companies to exclusively use its chips.

It is also defending itself to the European Commission anti trust court against allegations that it sold into the public sector at below cost and that it paid manufacturers to cancel AMD chip-based product launches. Intel denies doing anything wrong.

AMD is making its presentations today, also behind closed doors.

A spokesIntel is reported as saying: "We're trying to convince the commission that this is a competitive market and that it behaves as one would expect a competitive market to behave, to the benefit of consumers."

If Intel is found guilty it could face a fine of up to 10 per cent of its annual revenue. µ