The tiny south Pacific island of Tuvalu hopes to undergo a Cinderella-like transformation from one of the globe's poorest nations to one of the wealthiest after hanging a "for sale" sign on its Internet name. A Canadian private company, the .TV corporation, has started marketing Tuvalu's Internet domain name, the country code designation in World Wide Web addresses. They hope major television companies, producers, television personalities and others want to own a website address that has the cachet of the ".tv" ending.

The 9,000 inhabitants of the Polynesian microstate hope to eventually rank among the globe's richest people on a per capita basis because the bulk of the money earned from ".tv" will flow back to them.

Companies can now surf to www.internet.TV, and register a name with a $1,000 (£660) deposit. If rivals sign up for the same moniker, the firm will auction them off from February 1st, 1999.