The .me extension was assigned to Montenegro as a county code after it became an independent nation in June 2006. However, the Montenegro government decided .ME would be operated as a generic name after considering the potential worldwide wide appeal for the extension.

Netfirms began accepting applications last month for .me, before the official Landrush period began June 6.

The .eu domain launch in April 2006 proved to be widely popular, reportedly seeing nearly 2.6 million registrations in the first year alone, and LCN says it hopes to see a similar response to the .me extension.

"Due to the appeal that the .me has for personal use on blogs and family websites with customers having the opportunity to register their full and surname, and companies that wish to personalize their brands and product, the catchy .me extension has the potential to significantly outsell the .eu domain," says Mark Boost, LCN managing director.

In related news, ICANN approved the new top-level domain names last month including multilingual ones following a unanimous vote.

Registration for .me is available to the general public from 4 p.m. GMT July 17.