A website has claimed that a Mexican telecoms tycoon has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the world's richest man.

The Sentido Comun site claimed that Carlos Slim has amassed a fortune of $67.8 billion (£33.6 billion), more than IT software giant Gates.

Much of Mr Slim's wealth is attributed to his 33 per cent holding in mobile phone group America Movil.

Company shares have surged by 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2007, leaving Mr Slim with a stake worth $36.2 billion.

However, the Forbes Billionaires List - published last month - had Slim in third place with a fortune of $49 billion, behind Warren Buffett ($52 billion) and Bill Gates ($56 billion).

Recently, both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have made commitments to give much of their wealth to charitable causes. Most notably, Mr Gates used the wealth generated from his Microsoft company to establish the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since its beginnings in 2000, the charity has become the largest transparently-operated charitable foundation in the world.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).