The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation has announced that production has begun on its low-cost computers aimed at the developing world.

Taiwanese firm Quanta Computer is building the XO laptops at its factory in Changshu, China.

The project was started in 2005 to create a laptop that cost only $100 to manufacture, although the cost has almost doubled since then.

The devices keep their costs low using the open source Linux operating system.

OLPC has received orders from Uruguay and Mongolia, but also plans to sell the machines in America and Canada.

US and Canadian buyers will pay $399 for their computers, funding the cost of another machine that will be donated to an overseas child.

The Nigerian government recently shunned the OLPC machines in favour of Intel's Classmate PCs, putting in an order for 17,000 of the budget PCs.

The OLPC project was started by Professor Nicholas Negroponte from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.