ICANN said late Thursday that it had signed an agreement with DotAsia Organization, Ltd. to run the ".asia" top-level domain, approved by the organization in October. The group said registration of the names would be restricted to those with residency in the region, which would include Australia.

With the addition of .asia, 266 domain names now exist on the Internet. DotAsia is a consortium of domain name managers from countries within the region. The domain name itself is seen as an opportunity to unify the entire region, ICANN says.

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ICANN Signs Contract for '.asia'