Iraq battles for online independence

Iraq may slowly be getting more independence, but the battle for recognition in cyberspace is taking a bit longer.

Iraq wants to regain control of the internet domain name .iq and the government has officially asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) for the name.

Unfortunately, the domain is currently owned by the Texas-based company InfoCom and, to make matters even worse, its owners are being investigated for allegedly funding the hardline Palestinian group Hamas.

The news means that it could be years before Iraq can get back control of the iq name, news that causes symbolic and commercial problems for some Iraqis.

Paul Bremer, who was the US administrator in Iraq, has even joined the campiagn, sending an email to Icann asking for the problem to be quickly fixed.

Experts hope that those in charge of handing over the domain name will follow the example of Afghanistan, were it took just six months to reassign the name .af.