WASHINGTON - A new program to identify people with child pornography has been designed to seek out illegal images on the Internet and tie them to home computers.

The software, called Peer to Peer, has helped police identify more than 20,000 computers in Virginia that contain hardcore child pornography. Police said the software has identified more than 1,000 computers containing child pornography in Herndon alone.

The information could lead officers to the homes of child predators, said Capt. Tim Evans of the Virginia State Police Department.

Most of the area's offenders are near Washington, D.C., police said, noting that half of the Virginia cities where the most child pornography was found are in the immediate Washington area.

The software, which sweeps the Internet for child pornography, is designed to identify individuals, websites and host servers. When illicit images or files are found, they are flagged and police are alerted to the computer's IP address.

Police said the program needs to be fully developed or used - 39 police agencies in Virginia use Peer to Peer - but funding is the problem. Without more funding, few arrests have been made, police said, but they are tracking the keystrokes of thousands of suspects.

An Alexandria delegate lobbied for more than $1 million to help fund police departments but has yet to receive the money.