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ÕDancing BabyÕ spooks Japanese government

TOKYO: A dancing baby spooked JapanÕs government on Friday.

The government, struggling to ward off repeated attacks by computer hackers, found an animated cartoon of a dancing baby on the Trade MinistryÕs homepage after a tip-off early on Friday by police who feared the site may have been raided.

But to the relief and embarrassment of officials at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the cartoon had been inserted by the siteÕs operators while they were checking for intrusion attempts.

The "Dancing Baby", a popular computer animation character which has travelled the world via the Internet and appeared in a hallucinatory role on U.S. sitcom "Ally McBeal", had been used by the site operators as one of their tests.

"ItÕs so embarrassing," Trade Minister Takashi Fukaya told a news conference.

Japan has been suffering from raids this week on government Internet sites by hackers who have left messages attacking the government and links to pornographic sites.

The baby was quickly removed, a trade official said.ÑReuters