The network, namely CNGI-CERNET2/6IX, passed the examination of an expert team organized by the Ministry of Education here Saturday.

Experts said the network reached world leading level on the whole with major innovations and will give China a bigger say in the field.

China launched the building of the China Next Generation Internet in 2003 and completed in 2005 its first next generation Internet, the CNGI-CERNET2.

The success of the CNGI's core network freed China from dependence on foreign key Internet technologies and products and ensured national information security, said experts.

Proposed in mid-1990s, the next generation Internet is estimated to increase the information transmitting speed by more than 1000 times to 40 gigabytes per second.

It also offers more safety, easier management and almost inexhaustible Internet addresses.

In the next generation Internet, the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) was applied instead of the currently used Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). The two protocols regulate the Internet information traffic in different ways.

In developing the CNGI, China built the world's first IPv6-only network, and for the first time used domestic IPv6 routers, the core Internet components, in its national backbone network.

Experts called it a progress with strategic significance by ending reliance on foreign technologies in Internet construction.

With transmitting speeds ranging from 2.5 to 10 gigabytes per second, the CNGI's backbone network connected 25 core nodes distributed in 20 cities across the country.

China also achieved innovations in creating a new transitional scheme between the two versions of Internet protocol and an IPv6 source address validation system to ensure network safety.

Both of them were granted national patents and became basic references for international Internet organizations to make international standards, according to the Network Research Center of Tsinghua University, the leading institution in the CNGI construction.

Recognized as the future direction of the Internet development and a weapon in keeping economic, political and military advantages, the next generation Internet has been a strategic task for major developed countries like Japan and the United States.

China has written the development of the next generation Internet into its national economic and social development plan for the 2006-2010 period, and made it a key project in building an information-based country.