According to web monitoring company Hitwise, Weather.com and National Geographic have seen large increases in the number of people visiting their sites since President George Bush had declared a state of emergency on 28 August.

Hitwise said searches on 'Hurricane Katrina' have grown nine-fold in the past week.

UK visits to the US website of The Weather Channel, www.weather.com, increased by 27 per cent.

Also popular was the homepage of the US-based ABC News which provided real-time updates on the disaster as it unfolded.

In addition, market share for the website of National Geographic saw a pronounced spike, with traffic surging 42 per cent as people investigated global warming.

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