After numerous delays, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 has finally been released.

The release fixes many outstanding issues from Beta 2, and improves features and performance such as private browsing and the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

The full details of the new beta are available in the release notes, while the new beta can be downloaded from Mozilla.

Mozilla has delayed Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for a second time, citing numerous bugs in the browsers new JavaScript engine.

Last Wednesday’s status meeting for 3.1 reveale there are still 18 bugs remaining. The meeting minutes show the extent of the delay. “At this time, we don’t have a good estimate for when we’ll be done”.

After the last delay, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 was expected to be released Febrary 2nd. A new release date is not yet known.

Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 beta 3 a week from January 26th to February 2nd.

After a developers meeting on Wednesday, notes reveal “due to the large number of outstanding P1 blockers, we are declaring a code slip”. This target may be optimistic however, as one developer hinted that it could be delayed by as much as three weeks.

A code freeze is now scheduled for January 25th, with QA starting on January 27th.