A warning shot was fired across Napster's bows yesterday by the federal judge in charge of the online song-swapping service's fate.

US district judge Marilyn Hall Patel warned Napster it could still face closure if the website does not speed up its efforts to remove copyrighted songs from the service. She said it was "disgraceful" that copyrighted material could still be downloaded and told Napster: "You created this monster, you fix it."

Napster lawyers, Jonathan Schiller, pictured left with Robert Silver, argued that the firm has spent millions in the past five weeks filtering such copyrighted songs off the network.

A court-appointed expert will review claims from the music industry that songs can still be accessed.

Berteslmann, the German media group which owns the BMG music business, said talks with others in the industry aimed at hatching a peace deal with Napster were "progressing well".