WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain plans new advertising this week to reaffirm his commitment to keeping the Internet free from taxation and, perhaps, to underscore a difference with GOP front-runner George W. Bush.

In a statement Tuesday, McCain noted the success of Internet shopping during the just-concluded Christmas buying season. Analysts say holiday shopping on the Internet grew 300 percent last year, generating an estimated $10 billion to $11 billion in sales.

McCain's campaign said it will produce print ads this week to draw attention to the issue, as well as the Arizona senator's pledge to keep the Internet tax free. The ads will begin Wednesday in the Concord Monitor and the Nashua Telegraph, both in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary on Feb. 1.

Plans also are underway to buy banner ads on targeted Internet commerce sites to alert shoppers to the issue, the McCain campaign statement said.

McCain said the Internet "continues to be the greatest engine of economic growth in America today and I will not have it strangled with new taxes."

"Keeping the Internet tax free will prevent the federal government from becoming the ghost of Christmas future for consumers," he added.

McCain helped push through Congress a three-year ban on new Internet taxes that expires in October 2001. The legislation also created an advisory panel to study the issue and make recommendations to Congress, but its members are deeply divided.

Texas Gov. Bush, meanwhile, supports extending the moratorium on taxing Internet sales at least through 2004, according to his campaign Web site.