U.S. to Retain Control of Internet Domain System

The United States will keep control of the domain-name system that guides Internet traffic under an international agreement, resolving a dispute that threatened to fracture the global computer network.

Negotiators at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society said they had agreed to set up a forum to discuss spam e-mail and other Internet issues and explore ways to narrow the technology gap between rich and poor countries.

But that forum will have no power to regulate the Internet or wrest control of the domain-name system from the United States, as many countries had sought.