BEIJING, Nov. 25-- Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it had received isolated reports of technical problems with its new Xbox 360 videogame system, which debuted in North America earlier this week

Some Xbox 360 owners report that some systems had crashed during regular play as well as during online game play using the Xbox Live service.

Problems included screens going black and the appearance of a variety of error messages.

On www.xbox-scene.com, an online forum dedicated to Xbox gaming, nine members reported that they were having problems with their consoles.

"It's a few reports of consoles here and there not working properly," said Molly OˇDonnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft's Xbox division."Itˇs what you would expect with a consumer electronics instrument of this complexity."

Ms OˇDonnell urged anyone with Xbox problems to go to www.xbox.com. If the problem could not be resolved immediately, she said, Microsoft would pay to ship the console to and from a repair centre, or provide a replacement if the fault could not be repaired.

Gaming fanatics lined up for hours Monday to be among the first to purchase the next-generation system, which was in short supply despite its starting price tag of$299.99.

Microsoft hopes to sell 2.5 million to 3 million of the new systems in the first 90 days. Enditem

(Agencies)