Washington - Inexpensive laptop computers designed for students in developing countries will be sold to the public in a buy-one, give-one scheme, the non-profit organisation behind the project said Monday.

The "$100 laptops" - which currently cost nearly twice that amount - will go on sale for two weeks starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) said in a statement.

The non-profit group was organized by Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory, who came up with the idea of providing low-cost computers for students in underdeveloped countries as key step to promote education.

The sales program is designed to give the overall OLPC project more publicity, and to encourage open-source software developers to write programs for the laptop's operating system, the non-profit said.

The program is "a terrific opportunity for the public to help eliminate poverty and make the world a better place by innoculating children against ignorance," said Negroponte in the statement.

Energy efficient

The laptop - dubbed the XO - is a shock-and water-resistant device with a high-resolution screen that can be read in direct sunlight and in the dark, and has no moving parts aside from a rabbit ear antenna to connect to a wireless network.

The XO consumes about one-tenth of the energy a regular laptop uses, its designers say, and can be powered by solar energy or manually by pulling cords and hand cranks. It comes with a built-in video camera, a word processor, music and art software, and can be used as an electronic book reader.

Between November 12-26 US and Canadian customers can pay $399 for two XOs on a first-come, first-served basis. One laptop goes to the buyer, the other to a needy student the non-profit will determine.

OLPC said in May it hopes the price will come down to $100 by 2009.

Unicef, the UN children's fund, announced earlier that it is putting its education content on all the laptops shipped.