Sony is to redesign its PSP handheld console, Sony Computer Europe UK managing director Ray Maguire has confirmed.

Although the gaming giant ahs confirmed that a "smaller, lighter" system will be introduced in the future, it has failed to suggest when that would be.

However, Maguire did say that the redesign will not affect the size of the consoles screen, which is considered to be the handheld key strength over the Nintendo DS.

"Nintendo did it with the relaunch of the Nintendo DS and look at the popularity of that. It went from a big bulky games console to something you actually want to own. The same could easily happen for the PSP", an industry insider told us.

It won't be the first time the company has redesigned its products to give flagging sales a further boost. Both the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had a re-working to make them slimmer and smaller and received a price reduction at the same time.

No date has yet been put on when a new design would be unveiled.

We will keep you posted.