SINGAPORE. Mar 4: Repre-. sentatives of 17 nations, plus groups including the European Union, have endorsed a plan for turning technical administration of the Internet over to the private sector and letting the market solve evolving problems. reports AP.

Until late last year technical administration of the Internet was performed by. or on behalf of. the US government.

But an international nonprofit corporation, holding meetings this week in Singapore. is seeking comment and ideas from around the world on new ways of deciding such questions as: how Internet domain names are assigned, privacy and settlement or disputes.

The Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) concluded its inaugural meeting Tuesday by endorsing the establishment of private sector technical administration of the Internet. according to a statement made available Wednesday.

The decision "represented a significant milestone in the es-

tablishment of ICANN." said Paul Twomey of Australia, chairman of the governmental Advisory Committee. "We saw a broad cross-section of the community of nations express strong support for the idea that the Internet is best managed by the Internet community itself."

The committee confirmed the principles first put in motion last July by the US government. when it pushed for the development of ICANN. Until September 2000. ICANN will be gradually taking over responsibility for coordinating management of domain names, such as .org and .com, root server system management, and other aspects of the Internet

The Singapore meeting was accompanied by an open forum for individuals and companies to make suggestions, ask questions and tender criticisms on the plan organising domain names on the Internet. Previous meetings were in the United States and Belgium.

The next will be in Berlin in May.

In Singapore for the two-day discussion were representatives

from Argentina. Australia. Bhutan. Brazil. Canada, China. France. Germany. Japan. South Korea. Mexico, Peru. Singapore, Spain. Sri Lanka. Tuvalu and the United States. Germany represented the European Union, and there were also delegates from Asia Pacific Telecommunications, the International Telecommunications Union, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

“The governments and organisations attending today's meeting represent the vast majority of Internet users. They also reflected some of the most innovative policy approaches to the use of the Internet"

For example, the government of Tuvalu, a South Pacific nation, recently made Internet • history by arranging for the marketing of its country code, which is .tv. The small island country does not have enough local users for its code, which is an attractive one for many television companies around the world.