BUCHAREST, Romania — The Internet's key oversight body is coming under fire from Europeans and others who want more independence from the U.S.-based organization.

        Domain name managers in some countries want more autonomy than the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is willing to yield. Many, speaking at the organization's meeting here, have refused to pay membership dues.

        “Some of us feel that we should stand up for our reasonable rights and not give in to a U.S corporation,” said William Black, chairman of Nominet, which operates the popular “.uk” address system for the United Kingdom.

        To date, the only countries that have signed contracts with ICANN are Japan, Australia, Burundi and Malawi. More than 240 codes are assigned for the world's countries and territories.

        ICANN gets its authority over domain names through a 1998 agreement with the U.S. government, which built the Internet and retains control of a computer in Virginia that serves as the Net's master directory.

        Responding to its critics, ICANN officials say national registries — the corporations or nonprofit organizations that run coun try-code domains such as “.fr” for France — need to be accountable to somebody, starting with the local communities they serve.

        Andrew McLaughlin, vice president of ICANN, said he wants to add controls to the current informal system with national registries. For example, he said, if a country wanted to change managers for its registry, ICANN should ensure that person is technically competent and that the change has the support of the local Internet community.

        Last week, an ICANN reform committee proposed giving the national registries greater influence over ICANN policies by granting them their own supporting organization. The board was likely to adopt the proposal today.

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