Brussels, 15/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - Women and the elderly are beginning to cross the digital divide. However, more deprived sections of society are being excluded. This information is brought to light in a new Commission report on “e-exclusion”, which concludes that access to the Internet and computer skills can help people fight poverty. According to the report, women have overtaken men in the past three years in internet take-up. The over 55s are also increasingly gaining computer skills, and this trend is set to continue. However, the poorly educated and poorly paid are lagging behind. The report concludes that failing to acquire information skills compounds the difficulties faced by the poor and long-term unemployed, producing the 'eExcluded'. Member States need information society polices that are better targeted. Without action, Europe may become even more polarised. According to the report, education is fundamental to being 'eIncluded'. “'Higher Internet use seems to remain clearly and consistently related to higher educational and occupational status”,' it states. The report points out that the internet requires basic skills, such as literacy, and much of its content is geared towards the better educated. Most eInclusion initiatives take place at local level. One example the report describes is a project launched by the Italian commune of Rome and Microsoft, which encouraged over 60s to get online to combat loneliness. The prohibitive cost of personal computers is one of the obstacles to reducing the digital divide. This is particularly acute in the new Member States. The EU-15 had an average of 43.5% of its population using the Internet - this fell to 41.4% when the EU enlarged to 25. However, all of the new Member States have over 25% of their population using the Internet, above the rate for both Greece and Portugal, for example: Estonia, with 44% and Slovenia, with 41.7%. The report also indicates that remote and rural areas in the EU often still lack even basic Internet connections. They also have a slower take up of new technologies, increasing the digital divide between rural and urban areas.