THE Scottish National party is to take its campaign for independence into cyberspace by seeking to change the endings of all websites based in the country, from “.co.uk” to “.sco”.

Alex Salmond, the first minister, is to lodge a formal request with the American-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for allocating all internet domain names.

The appeal follows the awarding of local suffixes to Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. In 2005 the Spanish region of Catalonia also won the right to end all of its website names “.cat”.

Christine Grahame, a Nationalist MSP who has been leading a campaign for Scotland to get its own identity on the worldwide web, said the move was essential.

“It is clear that Scotland's confidence is growing as we move along the path of setting our own policy agenda and our own priorities in a distinct way, free from political and civil service interference originating from London.

“The introduction of the .sco suffix on all official e-mail addresses and websites would enhance the positive Scottish brand at official level.

“Scotland is already well respected internationally and this change would reinforce the distinctiveness of government in Scotland, and help improve further our external relations and national image.”

She added: “The UK government and its departments have experienced a large volume of bad publicity in recent years that has been reported extensively abroad, such as the personal details being lost for half the country, and serious failings at the Foreign and Home Offices have been damaging internationally to the UK government brand.

“I see no reason why those failings should damage Scotland's reputation, and one way to achieve that is the introduction of the .sco suffix.”

Nationalists believe the measure will prove popular among Scots, thousands of whom already display the letters “Sco” and the Saltire on their car licence plates.

Most Scottish government departments and agencies would be expected to change their website suffixes immediately. However, there would be no obligation on the part of other Scottish organisations to change their internet address.

DotSco, an internet campaign group pressing for the move, claims that it would give the Scots language and culture a higher profile.

Since it submitted a petition to the Scottish parliament seeking support for the idea last month it has attracted nearly 1,000 signatures.

“We don't want to prevent people from using .co.uk but we want them to have the option of .sco,” said Ross Ingebrigtsen, spokesman for the campaign.

“A lot of people abroad confuse Scotland with England and the UK, so a .sco address would be a way of emphasising Scottish identity. It would be easy for people to memorise.

“It would also help the Scottish tourist industry demonstrate its distinctiveness.”

Supporters of the idea deny it would cause unnecessary confusion because users keying in the old .co.uk addresses would be automatically redirected to the new ones.

A campaign has also been launched for .cym to become a new Welsh internet domain name and for London to be the first city in the world to be given its own internet domain name - .ldn.

Supporters of the .ldn suffix say millions of people regard the capital as central to their identity and should be able to identify their business or organisation with the city.

They argue that use of .ldn would enhance London's culture and identity in advance of the 2012 Olympics and boost tourism.

A spokesman for ICANN said the Scottish government would be able to apply for a .sco domain when it accepts applications for new names later this year.

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