'.me' and '.rs' to be launched

The legal framework for '.me' domain names - the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) attributed to Montenegro, is close to being finalized, and it is expected that new regulations will enter into force in the next month or so.

Montenegro declared independence from Serbia on June 3 2006, prompting the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the group responsible for country codes, to allocate the '.me' extension to the new sovereign country on September 26 2006. The very same day the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the body responsible for the technical management of TLDs within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, updated the root name servers by adding the new '.me' TLD. The TLD is currently unassigned - something the new government in the former Yugoslavian republic is keen to change.

In its decision of September 26 2006, ISO also decided to allocate '.rs' to Serbia, although a decision has yet to be taken on who will run the extension. It is intended that '.me' and '.rs' will replace '.yu', which was originally assigned to the former Yugoslavian republic. However, how and when the transition will take place has yet to be decided.

David Taylor and Jane Seager, Lovells, Paris