BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim pledged Thursday to donate 250,000 low-cost laptops to children by the end of the year and as many as 1 million in 2008.

The telecom mogul said "digital education" holds the key for Mexico's poor.

Slim is listed by Forbes as the world's second-richest man with holdings worth 53 billion U.S. dollars, but some financial analysts say he may have overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the world's richest.

"That's water off a duck's back to me," Slim said. "I don't know if that (the ranking) is correct, if I'm first, 20th, or 2,000th. It doesn't matter. It's all the same."

Slim said he wants to concentrate on building specialized preschools, handing out computers and supporting health care.

He said he would devote about 70 million dollars this year to the low-cost laptop program. With an estimated cost of 250 dollars to 300 dollars per machine, Slim would have to spend as much as 300 million dollars to pay for 1 million laptops. He predicted, however, that costs for the machines would fall further.

Slim, who controls Mexico's largest fixed-line telephone company, Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, said the plan would initially put the laptops in libraries and schools, which would eventually give them outright to students.

He said that within four years, he wants to build about 100 "early stimulation" preschools to give poor children training at a young age in math, language and computers. "The best investment one can make is to reduce poverty," he said, noting that wealthier citizens are better consumers.

(Agencies)