Brazil, which has slammed massive US electronic spying on its territory, said Wednesday it would host a global summit on Internet governance in April.
President Dilma Rousseff made the announcement after conferring in Brasilia with Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
"We have decided that Brazil will host in April 2014 an international summit of governments, industry, civil society and academia" to discuss Brazil's suggestions for upgrading Internet security, Rousseff said on Twitter.
The summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro.
Chehade heaped praise on Rousseff for using her UN General Assembly speech last month to demand measures to thwart the massive US cyber spying operation revealed by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
"She spoke for all of us on that day. She expressed the world's interest to actually find out how we are going to all live together in this new digital age," said Chehade.
"The trust in the global Internet has been punctured and now it's time to restore this trust through leadership and institutions that can make that happen."
Based in Los Angeles, ICANN is a non-profit, private organization that oversees certain Internet-related matters.
Rousseff scrapped a US state visit last month after documents leaked by Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor, revealed the extent of Washington's spying on its Brazilian ally.
The daily Globo has revealed, based on documents leaked by Snowden, that the NSA snooped on Rousseff's communications with aides, on phone call and email data of millions of Brazilians as well as on state-run energy giant Petrobras.
Canada, a close US ally, also targeted Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry for "economic and strategic motives," according to Brasilia.
"The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all," Rousseff said Monday.
She has vowed to introduce a measure at the United Nations to establish an "international civilian framework" to protect the privacy of Internet users.
The 30-year-old Snowden, who has sought refuge in Russia, is wanted by the United States after revealing details of the NSA's massive worldwide espionage activities.
[Image via Agence France-Presse]