This paper deals with the problem of absolute stability of time-delay systems with sector-bounded nonlinearity. Some new delay-dependent stability criteria are obtained and formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Neither model transformation nor bounding technique for cross terms is involved through derivation of the stability criteria. Numerical examples show that the results obtained in this paper improve the estimate of the stability limit over some existing result. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.