Phone messaging and email traffic has surged over the past week as people use the latest technology to vent their outrage or voice support for the military invasion of Iraq.

The BBC World Service has been inundated with thousands of text messages from mobile phone users across the globe wanting to express their views about the war.

"Suddenly text messaging appears to have moved on from personal communication to personal statement," said Nigel Chapman, the deputy director of the BBC World Service.

"People have strong views on the war and are using the technology they use every day to tell us.

"New technologies are giving us a level of interaction with our audiences that we have never seen before."

The volume of text messages to the broadcaster has grown tenfold since March to a total of 6,000.

Listeners in Africa, particularly those in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, are among the most prolific texters.

The BBC World Service has also been flooded with texts from listeners in Belgium, the Czech Republic, India, Israel, Malta, Spain and the UK.

BBC Somali has received nearly 800 messages on the Iraqi conflict since it launched its text service on March 26.

Meanwhile, the broadcaster's international websites remain a popular source of news, attracting 80 million page impressions over the past eight days and 180 million since March.

Email traffic continues to increase from all parts of the globe including the US, Germany, Pakistan, Singapore and Sweden.

Talking Point, the show that enables listeners to quiz world leaders, has received more than 160,000 emails from listeners commenting on the war.

BBC Arabic's version of Talking Point, which launched today, received 3,000 emails.