Worldwide information technology services spending should double by 2005 to $1.4 trillion a year, despite the economic slump, according to a report released on Wednesday by Dataquest Inc.

The unit of research firm Gartner, Inc. said the Information Technology (IT) market is projected to grow 12.1 percent from $665.87 billion in 2000, after expanding by 9.7 percent in 1999.

Although a slowing economy has put a damper on the market, the report said the industry has good growth opportunities in the long term.

Dataquest analysts said the Asia-Pacific market would grow at the fastest clip, more than tripling to $124.8 billion in 2005. "The Asia-Pacific IT services market is expected to enjoy robust growth with the increase of government-funded IT projects in many countries. Public spending will continue to be the main engine of growth the the region" said Dataquest analyst Angelia Kho.

'Software maintenance and support is expected to grow 16.1% to $109 billion.

Hardware maintenance and support is expected to grow 5.36% to $136.6 billion.

And management services are expected to grow 16.35% to $200 billion led by strong growth in development and integration services.'