Microsoft has delayed its long awaited Windows XP Service Pack 2 release once again, amid concerns about quality, reports claim.

The software giant had originally scheduled Service Pack 2, which is intended to enhance the operating system's security capabilities, for June, but it was delayed until July and then August.

Microsoft had most recently said Service Pack 2 would be ready to be released to manufacturing on Wednesday, but now says it is straightening out some minor issues and it will now not be released until towards the end of August.

'We are very, very confident it will RTM [release to manufacturing] very, very soon and that will certainly be before the end of August,' Greg Sullivan, lead program manager for Windows, told Information Week.

'We are finalising the release and coming down the home stretch,' he said.