The continuous chain model developed for the description of the tensile deformation of fibres is extended to include the creep behaviour. The description of the viscoelastic extension of the fibre is based on the Linear viscoelastic shear deformation of the domain. From the time dependent change of the chain orientation angle the creep strain of the fibre is derived. The proposed theory allows the prediction of the creep of poly(p-phenyleneterephthalamide) fibres with an arbitrary value for the modulus or orientation parameter. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.