In a step that ensured it a place among the four countries worldwide to use Internet domain names in their mother tongue, the United Arab Emirates launched its first web address in Arabic letters Saturday.

UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan launched the website of President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan - "Khalifa. emarat." The ministry said that the UAE domain reflects the country's pride in the Arabic language and that it will also convey to the world the progress being experienced by the UAE, the official news agency WAM reported.

Notably, nod for an entire domain name to appear in Cyrillic for Russia and Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE was granted by the Internet Corporation Assigned for Names and Numbers (ICCAN) in January. In a similar development earlier this month, Egypt launched its maiden internet domain name ".misr". The aim was to give a boost to e-services and the number of people going online in the country.

Lauding the efforts of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), the Presidential Affairs ministry said: “The UAE domain reflects the UAE's pride in the Arabic language and its role in Arab culture".