From December 3 to December 14, the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU) agency will be meeting in Dubai UAE, to make some pertinent revisions to the 1988-drafted International Telecommunications Regulations treaty --- a treaty which was framed before the commercial Internet came into being; and when telecommunications chiefly pertained to voice telephone calls through national telephone monopolies.

The scheduled meeting of the 193 ITU member-countries in Dubai will aim at bringing about the first changes to the treaty - which chiefly regulates the international exchange of telephone and other telecom traffic - in decades.

With the US to have a notable number of 95 participants at the ITU conference in Dubai, analysts are of the opinion that while some member-countries - like China, Russia, Iran and Arab countries - will introduce proposals which could curb Internet freedom, and encourage Internet censorship; other countries will propose that the UN should have more authority in terms of controlling the Internet.

Noting that the US will propose that the treaty be confined to telecom networks, Ambassador Terry Kramer - who will head the US delegation to the ITU conference - said that the country was committed to maintaining free speech, human rights, and a liberalized market in the telecommunications arena.

Meanwhile, asserting that the revised treaty will not change the way the Internet was governed, ITU spokesperson Sarah Parkes said the conference will neither touch on "Internet governance" nor will it propose "changing the current mandate of the organizations that run the Internet."