After reviewing bbc.co.uk, the trust said it was "an excellent service" but that its content had to be different from that on rival websites.

And it criticised the site's management for a Ј3.5m overspend last year.

The report is the first of a number of reviews of the BBC's services as part of its new charter and agreement.

The trust, an independent body which works on behalf of licence payers, has taken responsibility for such reviews from the culture secretary to establish greater independence for the BBC from the government.

In its report, the trust said the BBC website delivered great public value to the "vast numbers who use it [and] love it".

It said the site had 16.5 million users each month and continued to grow despite competition.

Representatives of competitors, including ITN and the Newspaper Society, were consulted as part of the review.

Presenting the reports findings, review leader Dame Patricia Hodgson said: "This is a very reassuring set of findings about the quality of the service, the value that it gives to audiences and what they think about it."

Overspend criticised

She added that there would be three new safeguards to protect competitors:

Each part of the website to have its own aims and budget

• Each part of the website to be tested against seven criteria to find out if it is distinctive enough
• Any major new development in bbc.co.uk that could impact on other sites - including local news sites - to be reviewed with a "public value test"

The trust has told BBC management there must also be tighter controls on the financial side.

There had been a "small" overspend of Ј3.5m for 2007/2008, Dame Patricia said.

In its review, the trust also uncovered the "Ј24.9m misallocation of general overheads and costs from other budgets".

Dame Patricia said the money was not wrongly spent but was simply allocated to other departments during restructuring.

"That may be the explanation but clearly it is not acceptable," she said.

"There must be stronger financial, strategic and editorial controls."

The trust is also calling for an improved internal search engine, more links to non-BBC websites and more interactivity.

It said any plans for new investment in bbc.co.uk would not be approved until management had made satisfactory plans to further tighten controls.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk