The organisations said that Mozilla Messaging’s initial focus is the development of Thunderbird 3, the latest version of its free and open source email client.

Mozilla said the new Thunderbird would deliver significant improvements, notably integrated calendaring, better search and enhancements to the overall user experience.

Thunderbird is built using the same open source development model as the Firefox Web browser. The Mozilla Messaging unit is to be staffed by a small product development team who will work as part of a community of contributors from around the world.

“We're …. committed to building a great email product that people will love to use and that serves as the foundation for choice in a critical area of internet software,” said Mozilla Messaging chief executive David Ascher.

Mean, Mozilla is ready its Firefox 3 web browser for download. The new platform is expected to be launched within weeks. The organisations launched the fourth beta version of the product a week ago.

Firefox three is much anticipated after the stunning success of the Firefox 2 browser, which continues to grow worldwide market share. The Mozilla organisation says the Firefox 3 version of the platform offers improved security and reduced memory requirements – making downloads faster.