The United States looks set to continue managing the system for assigning internet addresses after an eleventh-hour deal averted a potential split between America and the rest of the world over the future governance of the web.

It had been feared that disagreement between the US, which made clear it would not relinquish its control over the way internet addresses such as those ending ".com"are assigned, and other countries, which have called for more open management, could have led to the establishment of two competing standards on the worldwide web.

However, diplomats attending the key conference in Tunisia said agreements had been reached overnight on several crunch clauses, which should be endorsed at the World Summit on the Internet Society (WSIS), which starts in Tunis today.

The three-year deadlock in the talks had centred on Washington’s exclusive oversight of the private body that oversees the key technical and administrative roots of the global network. However, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is now expected to have its tender renewed by the US government next summer and to continue managing the web as before.

Washington’s critics had warned that no single nation could maintain control over top-level domain or country names - such as .cn, .fr and .uk - without opening itself to accusations of misuse. In response, the US had warned that regimes such as China or Iran, charged with blocking freedom of speech online, might otherwise be in a position to exert control over the internet.

"We did not change anything on the role of the US Government with regard to the technical aspects that we were very concerned about," David Gross, the American team’s lead negotiator, said.

"We saw the world’s countries recognising how very important the internet is and how important the growth of the internet is, and no one created a problem that could help retard that growth."

Countries such as Iran and China had sought UN oversight of ICANN or internet governance. The European Union had also called for US powers to be diluted and had called for for an inter-governmental oversight body to be formed.

However, the tentative agreement reached overnight set up two parallel tracks of multilateral talks, including an open-ended process "towards enhanced co-operation" by "relevant international organisations" on oversight and public policy issues. The process will be triggered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan early next year, but will have no set targets.

The other track creates an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) for an initial five-year term to hold talks on all internet issues, including problems such as spam, cyber crime or computer viruses.

After a final session during which US, Chinese and Iranian diplomats swapped suggestions for new wording, officials applauded efforts to widen the scope of formal discussion to industry and civil society.

The IGF, which Greece has offered to host, will also be allowed to "build on the existing structures of internet governance" but has no concrete powers.

"The worst has been avoided but we’re not sure that the best is to come in the future. We have left a door open," a member of the French delegation, Bernard Benhamou, said.

"We did not close the door to the essential part: international cooperation," he added.

Shashi Tharoor, the UN Under Secretary General for Communications, said: "We need more voices in the process and we need more voices on the net … [it is] very important that the internet remain a realm for freedom of expression and freedom of opinion".

Businesses such as Google and Microsoft have backed the present model of internet governance.

Charles Bremner's view from France.

For a round-up of blogger debate click here.

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