Berlin - A computer virus which has already hit defence computers in Britain and France has spread to German military systems, the Defence Ministry in Berlin said Saturday.

The Conficker computer worm has exasperated computer users right around the globe in recent weeks, but security-conscious military users had been thought to be better prepared to repel it.

The spokesman said several German armed forces sites had to be disconnected from the military network after hundreds of computers were taken over by Conficker. However, no other disruptions were reported.

He said army computer recovery specialists and a private company were ridding the computers of the virus.

France suffered a military outage from the worm in mid-January. Britain's Defence Ministry has also admitted problems with it.

Microsoft has posted a reward of 250,000 dollars for the capture of the person who spread the virus, which takes over Windows operating systems, attempts to crack passwords and downloads malware from the internet. (dpa)