MySpace plans more overseas expansion in "

News Corp.'s popular Internet social Web site, MySpace, plans to more than double the number of countries it serves by the end of the year, a senior executive, quoted in a Reuters report said.

The Reuters report said the target expands Rupert Murdoch's initial goal for MySpace to operate in 11 markets over time, compared to the current 10. The News Corp. chief executive has expressed deep interest in launching MySpace in the potentially lucrative China market through a local joint venture partner.

'In every country we've launched, we've seen incredible growth "&brkbar; without doing any real marketing of the site,' MySpace senior vice president for international operations, Travis Katz, said in an interview.

The report also quoted the executive as saying that MySpace has test-launched services in Mexico, in addition to Italy and Spain. Other markets it is already operating in are the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany and Japan.

Katz declined to say which new markets were top priorities for test launches for the online teen hangout, among the most visited properties on the Internet, the Reuters report said.

The Reuters report said since launching in the UK market last year, some 25% of MySpace's 325,000 daily new registrants now come from outside the US, Katz said. In Australia, where it attracted more than 2 million unique visitors in December, according to Nielsen NetRatings, MySpace said it has more page views than Internet rivals including Yahoo.