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Although only a point release, Firefox 3.1 includes a bevy of significant new features, including the new TraceMonkey Javascript engine and a privacy mode.

In a post to the mozilla.dev.planning newsgroup, Mozilla's Mike Beltzner says the new components require further testing.

"The impact of late Beta 2 landings such as Private Browsing Mode, Worker Threads, Speculative Parsing and TraceMonkey will benefit from multiple beta releases,"

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he writes.

The open-source group also needs more time to work on so-called "blockers" - bugs that are serious enough to hold up the release of the browser. "We don't have full clarity into the nature of our remaining blockers, some of which likely require beta exposure," Beltzner says.

"In order to close this release, a re-triaging (like we did around Firefox 3 Beta 4) is required both to identify the severity of the remaining blockers and the time required to address them properly."

The company is hoping the new beta will be stable enough to tempt more Firefox users to try the code. "The hope is that when Beta 3 is released, compatibility with our existing add-ons will be high, encouraging more users to shift to the beta to provide their usage feedback," Beltzner adds.

Mozilla claims the extra beta shouldn't adversely affect the final launch date, which is scheduled for the end of Q1 2009. "We believe that we can add this milestone without a major impact on the shipping schedule for the release."