Nominet, the British internet registry that controls ".co.uk" web addresses, has warned the internet could be threatened by potentially oppressive legislation if countries continue to pursue narrow political agendas in the debate over how it is run.

The warning comes ahead of a key international conference in Tunisia next month, where countries will discuss the future "ownership" of the web.

The registry, a private company, has voiced serious concerns that proposals by the European Union - that would relax the United States' current stranglehold on the internet - have been backed by nations such as China and Iran, which have been widely criticised for operating oppressive online regulations.

Emily Taylor, director of legal and policy at Nominet said: "What these countries do within their own borders is a matter for them, but it would be concerning for everybody if they were to take those views to the international arena."

She added that urgent clarification was required from the EU over its position, which Nominet does not consider to actually be coherent with the radical aims of some non-democratic states.

Domain names on the internet such as ".com" are regulated by several private companies in the United States. The most important is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is supervised directly by the United States government.

The EU is unhappy with that arrangement and has called for an international forum that would include both the public and private sectors.

Meanwhile, states such as Iran and China already use sophisticated filtering and surveillance equipment to control the internet within their borders and are keen to cement their authority.

Ms Taylor said it was worrying that such countries had backed the EU proposals. Nominet believes that the EU and US share common ground and that oppressive states should not be allowed to use the European position as a bandwagon.

Ms Taylor said: "We do not see the EU and US positions as fundamentally incompatible. The EU position does, after all, talk about 'not replacing existing structures' and emphasises 'complementarity' between different actors.

"However, we prefer the 'multi-stakeholder' proposal, suggested by Argentina, which provides a balance between the US' free market position, and ... calls for greater state control."

She added: "Intervention by governments worldwide, each with their own political agenda and cultural beliefs to uphold, threatens to consign the internet to a future of over-regulation."

"Amid calls for international intervention to avoid dominance of the internet by a single state, Nominet believes that we should be looking to take more a pragmatic, incremental approach to internet governance and not seek to completely overhaul a model that allows for flexibility, innovation and is founded on private sector investment."

Last month, the United States found itself isolated as it sought to defend its monopoly over internet regulation against the European Union and others countries.

"On the issue of internet governance, very big differences of opinion exist," the head of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said in September following a preparatory meeting for the second stage of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.

"The United States insist that the present status quo should be maintained. Other countries share the view that it should be evolving."

The Geneva-based Telecommunication Union is a branch of the United Nations through which governments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and services.

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