LONDON -- The British capital has won approval to use the .london domain, making it one of a growing number of major cities which claim their own chunk of the World Wide Web.

The mayor's office said in a statement Friday that Internet addresses ending in ".london" would be available from next year after ICANN, the global internet body, approved the suffix this week.

The new suffixes are part of a wider expansion of the online address system familiar to many people through the traditional .com and .net.

ICANN is working its way through hundreds of bids for new addresses, from .active to .youtube. Other city domains, such as .paris, .nyc, and .moscow, are at various stages of the launch process.