ANXIOUS new parents can now view over the Internet live images of their babies slumbering in a Singapore hospital cot.

Parents, using their own computers at work or home, simply key in their passwords at Singapore's Thomson Medical Center (TMC) Web site to access live video feeds of their infants.

ViewBaby, launched Jan 19, will be available for six hours daily. Two cameras installed at the TMC's special care ward transmit images of the baby in the cot.

"We're fulfilling the need for a very special group of parents who are not able to visit their babies physically," Leong Yew Meng, TMC's chief executive officer, told Reuters.

Premature babies or those needing special care usually have to stay in hospital for an extra three days to a week, Leong said.

But the local custom of a month's home confinement for a mother after childbirth meant she could not visit her hospitalized baby. Leong added that new fathers often had to be at work.

"They're very anxious. They just want to see that the baby is okay...(Now) they can log on," Leong said. "We know that the technology is available easily."

The Webcasting technology that ViewBaby uses has been used for corporate video-conferencing and to broadcast Madonna's latest concert.

The hospital invested S$10,000 (US $5747) in the pilot project and has not decided what it will charge for the service.