Microsoft has pushed the Japanese launch of its X-box console back until late February next year, raising doubts that the machine will arrive in Europe before next September.

Microsoft denied that its move into consoles had been hit by technical problems, but said it wanted to concentrate its production resources to supply its home market, North America.

X-box launches in the US in November, just days before Nintendo's rival GameCube console, which has itself suffered delays.

Hirohisa Ohura, managing director of Microsoft's Japanese unit, said: "The X-box is Microsoft's biggest challenge in the twenty-first century. We want to first succeed in the United States and then ride the wave of popularity into the Japanese market."

But the delay means that Microsoft will have to play catch-up in Japan, the home of video games. X-box will now arrive about five months after Nintendo's GameCube machine, and nearly two years after Sony's successful launch of its PlayStation 2 console.

The Japanese setback may also signal that X-box won't arrive in Europe until September 2002.

Microsoft's 22 February Japanese release date suggests the firm may struggle to have enough finished consoles to meet a Spring 2002 European launch if the console is even remotely successful in the US and Japan.

Microsoft is building a new production centre in Hungary to make the X-box console, but it isn't expected to be fully operational until Summer 2002.

A spokeswoman confirmed only that consoles for the European market would be made in Europe, but could not say when production was scheduled to begin.