IANA
is the organization authorized to
delegate Country Code TLDs
(ccTLDs)
Two-character TLDs are reserved as country
code identifiers under
ISO
3166. In determining whether a new ccTLD
should be created, the IANA follows the
ISO
3166-1 list as published by the
ISO
3166 Maintenance Agency. The appointment
of a ccTLD manager is done in consultation
with the participating country and ICANN.
The selection of the ISO 3166-1 list as
a basis for ccTLDs was made with the knowledge
that ISO has a politically neutral procedure
for determining which entities should be
and should not be on that list.