The US has indicated that it may give up some control of net domain names.
The US government currently oversees the net's domain name system through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
However, a policy statement issued last year asserted the US would not give up its oversight domain names like .com.
But the deadline for the full privatisation of Icann is 30 September 2006, although the US department has the option to delay the hand-over, and the meeting on Wednesday formed part of the public consultation to determine whether the company is ready to stand alone.
Emily Taylor, director of legal and policy at Nominet, the UK internet name registry for domain names ending in .uk, spoke at the hearing.
"But [the transition] is all a question of timing. We are reasonably relaxed about the timeframe. We think the current system works well, and we do not really have an operational problem with the US government's involvement.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk