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Timetable for new domain names approved

NEW YORK: The Internet’s key oversight body approved a timetable Friday for expanding the online addressing system with an eye toward allowing domain names made up entirely of non-English characters.

Though Internet users may now register names in Chinese, Arabic and dozens of other scripts, domain names currently must end with “.com” or another English string. Domain names are key to finding Web sites and routing e-mail. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, during its regular meeting in the Arabic-speaking nation of Tunisia, called for studies by next September on technical, economic, trademark and other considerations related to new names.

The studies would include whether suffixes in other languages would create any technical problems. If they do not, applications for those, along with additional English suffixes, could come by Dec. 31, 2004, and new domain names could be in use as early as 2005. “The call is very clear when you’re in places like the Arab-speaking world,” ICANN chief executive Paul Twomey told reporters by telephone. He compared the effect of current language restrictions to forcing Americans to register and use only names that end with the Chinese or Urdu equivalent of “.com.”

ICANN, a California-based organization selected by the U.S. government to oversee Internet addressing policies, approved a quicker timetable for domain names restricted to specific groups, like health organizations. It will begin accepting applications by mid-December and select an undetermined number early next year.

The organization had approved seven domain names in 2000, including three targeting specific communities: museums, the aviation industry and business cooperatives. Ones for health organizations and labor unions were among those rejected. There are now 258 domain names on the Internet, the bulk of them designated for specific countries such as “.fr” for France and “.us” for the United States. The seven approved in 2000 represented the first major expansion since the domain name system was created in the 1980s. The creation of “.eu” for the European Union also is in the works. —AP

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