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Problems still likely from millennium bug: Bill Gates

NEW YORK: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates on Saturday predicted that international computer systems will experience "snafus" in the next several weeks, despite the absence of "millennium bug" problems on the first day of 2000.

"In the months ahead, you are going to hear about failing systems. "It's not going to be catastrophic, but there will be a lot of snafus," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live" talk show.

Gates, the world's richest man and inventor of the Windows operating system, said he was not surprised by the relative absence of problems early in the new year, pointing out that technicians had months to prepare for the arrival of 2000.

"In terms of infrastructure like elevators, planes, missiles, I thought people would be able to do a great job," he said.

"If people had ignored the thing, then you'd have seen more impact," Gates said. AFP