"I think by the end of the week, we will extend the current ban on internet tariffs for 18 to 24 months," Daley said on Wednesday in a speech prepared for delivery here. "And by the time that extension expires, more countries will appreciate what the internet can do and we will eventually see a permanent ban," he said. Daley also predicted that ministers would leave the conference "without taking measures that could mess up e-commerce's growth."

"I don't see them making any rules that discriminate against new technologies. Nor will they classify digital products in a way that puts them at a disadvantage," he said.

Protesters lift jail siege
Protesters lifted their siege of a Seattle jail on Thursday after officials allowed lawyers to visit anti-WTO activists detained there. Some 3,000 demonstrators had surrounded the jail for more than three hours in protest at the police crackdown and mass arrests of demonstrators opposed to global trade talks taking place here this week. "Let them go, let them go.

Free the Seattle 500," they chanted as they blocked access to the King County jail South of the city centre. More than 500 people have been arrested here in three days of violent demonstrations targeting a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting. The 2,000-strong protest began around and swelled to more than 3,000 as dusk fell. The demonstration was over after lawyers entered the jail then waved from a window, a signal for protesters to disperse, witnesses said. Direct Action Network, the group coordinating anti-WTO protests, had complained that detainees had been denied their legal rights when arrested. The Network said they had not been allowed to see lawyers, and some had even been refused food or water. After leaving the jail, many of the demonstrators regrouped at Capitol Hill, the city neighbourhood where trouble broke earlier.

-- Compiled from AFP