¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Internet domain name applicants inChina have been authorized to add directly their organization title before the ".cn" suffix without having to specify their organizations' categories like ".com" or ".net" beginning March 17,the China Daily reported Friday.

¡¡¡¡The Ministry of Information Industry, the highest authority overseeing China's IT industry, released new regulations on domainname Thursday, aiming to speed up China's Internet development andprotect its information security.

¡¡¡¡Statistics indicate that since the registration process is mucheasier in foreign countries, about 80 to 90 percent of China's users have registered their domain names with the ".com" or ".net"suffixes used abroad.

¡¡¡¡Domain names with the ".cn" suffix have grown form 4,066 in 1997 to around 126,146 by the end of June 2002, according to the paper.

¡¡¡¡The paper quoted Qian Hualin with the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) as saying that the regulation is aimed to provide easier and quicker access to domain name applicants.

¡¡¡¡Currently, every ".cn" user is charged 300 yuan (about 36 US dollars) each year. Enditem