A US judge is to decide whether to issue an order barring a former Microsoft executive from heading computer industry rival Google's planned China research center, court officials said, AFP reported.

Microsoft attorneys have asked a judge in the western state of Washington to stop Lee Kai-Fu from doing the job that Google recently hired Lee to do: lead their expansion into the booming China computer market.

Judge Steven Gonzalez will reveal his decision at the end of the court day on Thursday, his clerk told AFP. "The judge is going to announce his decision after 4:00 pm (2300 GMT)," she said.

Microsoft is demanding an emergency restraining order on the grounds that the software goliath will be profoundly and irreversibly harmed if Lee is allowed to put skills honed at Microsoft to work for Google.

Google hired 43-year-old Lee away from Microsoft on July 5, according to court records.

Microsoft's civil suit contends that Lee is violating confidentiality and non-competition agreements he made when he became an executive with the company in 2000. The suit was filed against Lee and Google.

Google has countered in court that neither it nor Lee have done anything wrong under the law in the state of California, where Google has its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Microsoft revealed the suit earlier this month, just as online search giant Google touted plans to tap into the booming Chinese market by opening a research and development center headed by Lee.

Lee worked as vice president of Microsoft's Natural Interactive Services Division before taking the Google job, Microsoft said in a statement.

"We are asking the Court to require Dr Lee and Google to honor the confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft," the company said.

"As a senior executive, Dr Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft's trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies."

Lee's position at Google is "focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations," Microsoft charged.

Lee is a computer scientist known for pioneering work in the areas of speech recognition and artificial intelligence.

He took part in the founding of Microsoft Research China in the late 1990s and has also done a stint working at computer pioneer Apple.

Google officials heralded the creation of the center as a sign of strong commitment to cultivating Chinese talent and called China "a hotbed of innovation and technology right now."

Source: CD/Agencies