Key parts of a reform plan put forward by the head of the internet's ruling body have been rejected by a group advising on how to make the organisation more effective.

The group was set up by Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to assess a radical plan floated in February by Stuart Lynn, the net body's president.

His plan suggested getting governments on board to help fund and run Icann and ending the system that lets net users vote for some members of the group's board.

The group is now seeking public comment on its recommendations prior to a meeting in Romania where Icann's future structure will be decided.

Public plan

Icann was created in October 1998 to manage the transition of the net from a US administered proxy to a more international and open network.

Icann set up the Evolution and Reform Committee in March to deal with the flood of comments and suggestions unleashed by Stuart Lynn's plans to reform the organisation.

In that plan, Mr Lynn candidly declared that without reform Icann was in danger of "failing".

Many net commentators criticised the Lynn plan because it swapped grassroots net user involvement on the Icann board for the backing of governments.

Final say

Now, the committee has also declared its opposition to the idea of letting governments run the organisation.

Instead it recommended that the country code registries, who look after domains such as .uk and .fr, should get a seat on the board as should some representatives of the larger net community.

Other seats on the board would go to members of Icann's technical groups as well as security experts, domain registrars and government delegates.

The final decision on the future structure of Icann will be made at a meeting in Bucharest on 24-28 June.