This paper addresses the problem of stability for linear systems with time-varying delay. A novel augmented Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is constructed by using the idea of optimally dividing the delay interval [0, tau(t)] into some variable sub-intervals and line integral technology. Using the novel augmented functional, the new delay-dependent stability criteria are proposed for linear systems with time-varying delay. The gain is that this stability criterion can lead to much less conservative stability results compared to other methods for linear systems with delay. Two numerical examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed criteria. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.