The global agency overseeing Internet domain names has given the go ahead for Internet addresses in Arabic and Cyrillic script.

For the first time, ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - is allowing Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to issue online addresses in their native languages.

For the past 30 years only names in the Latin alphabet have been permitted, while over half of the world's 1.6 billion Internet users speak a language based on a different alphabet. ICANN's head Rod Beckstrom describes the move as "a pivotal moment in the history of Internet domain names".