A new internet domain especially for pornography is set to go ahead after the official name .xxx was approved by US authorities as an alternative to suffixes such as .com or .co.uk.

Amid controversy over the concept of creating an "online red light district", proponents of the domain argued it would help to regulate adult entertainment content and keep it further from the eyes of youngsters.

The domain, Dot Triple-X, was approved by the international Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which administers millions of internet addresses. It had been pending since 2003 and was resisted by the Bush government but progressed unopposed by Barack Obama's administration.

Dot Triple-X will be managed by the online address registering company ICM Registry, which has long fought for a legitimate domain set aside for sexually explicit material on the net.

More than 230,000 pornographic websites have reserved an address ending in .xxx, in anticipation of the eventual approval of the domain name.

Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, said the first .xxx websites would be going live by June or July of this year.

"For the first time, there will be a clearly defined web address for adult entertainment, further out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or computer viruses," he said.

Use of the domain name is voluntary and is designed to shut out child porn and incorporate heightened security barriers, making it harder for children to stumble on sexual content online.