The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has approved a plan to allow users to register generic domain names.

Users will be able to register whatever domain suffix they want for their site, rather than being limited to the traditional .com or .net, for example.

Non-Latin characters will also be permissible, paving the way for international sites which use Chinese, Russian or other unique characters.

"This was an extremely successful meeting that will be remembered as a milestone in the development of the internet," said Icann chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.

"New generic top-level domains and internationalised domain names will open up the internet and make it look as diverse as the people who use it."

The organisation has not yet decided on the registration cost of the new domains, but prices are expected to be significantly higher than for existing suffixes.

The approval came at the conclusion of Icann's International Public Meeting in France.

Icann also passed new measures designed to eliminate large-scale 'domain tasting' in which multiple domains are registered and unprofitable addresses quickly dumped.