Egypt will open the world’s first Arabic language domain name as part of ICANN’s fast track process for internationalised domains. The new domain name will apparently be “.masr” written in the Arabic alphabet which translates as “Egypt.”

Egypt’s communications minister Tarek Kamel said: "It is a great moment for us... The internet now speaks Arabic."

Last month ICANN voted to allow multi language web addresses. Previously, a domain name such as.com, .co.uk, .org etc. had to be written in Latin script. The effort is part of a broader movement to expand both access and content in developing nations.

China is also said to be applying for a Chinese TLD. According to reports, China will apply for the top-level Chinese domain name "Zhongguo"(written in pinyin).

ICANN President Rod Beckstrom described the importance of this change to the global Internet community, by saying "over half the Internet users around the world don't use a Latin-based script as their native language. IDNs are about making the Internet more global and accessible for everyone."

Once the requests are evaluated and approved, new ccTLD IDNs are expected to come online in many countries during 2010.