Geneva: Time could soon be up for the leap second - the extra moment added to universal time to keep it in sync with the earth's movement - as experts consider abolishing it later this week. Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC) is based on about 400 atomic clocks at laboratories around the world, occasionally corrected with a leap second to align it with the earth's varying rotation. The world's computer systems need to be adjusted accordingly, leaving them open to error, and many countries including the US and France want to end the 40-year-old practice.