In a session marked by articularly complex technical details yesterday, Microsoft sought to dispel the allegation that it had tried to bully Apple into dropping out of the browser market, as both Apple and the government allege.

Microsoft tried to convince Apple to give up the effort to get into the internet browsers market, which negotiators on both sides called `knifing the baby', testified Apple executive Avadis Tevanian.

Microsoft lawyer Teodore Edelman, who cross-examined Tevanian, cited internal Apple marketing documents that said the company's since-discontinued cyberdog browser would be `tightly integrated' into its Mac OS (operating system).

Microsoft is accused of violating thse US anti-trust statutes by using its dominance of the operating system market to wincontrol of the internet browser market.

Tevanian, Apple's senior vice-president for software engineering, responded by trying to distinguish between `bundling', `building in' and `integrating' the browser with the operating system.

He said the integration of cyberdog into Mac OS meant only that `it worked well with the operating system' and was not an attempt to monopolise the market as Microsoft has been accused of doing.