Turkish engineers are working on developing an internet search engine and aiming to launch it in 2010, the head of the country's telecommunications watchdog said on Saturday.

Tayfun Acarer, chairman of Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Board (BTK), said that all major search engines used worldwide were based in foreign countries, which he said was a risk for communication.

"All internet communication data goes to foreign countries and then it returns. This activity has a security aspect," Acarer said.

Existing search engines can not meet Turkey's needs and are sometimes deaf to country's sensitivities, Acarer said, also adding problems occurred because of Turkish letters which do not exist in English alphabet.

"I believe that our search engine will be popular in Turkic countries and Muslim countries and I am confident that these countries will trust our search engine," Acarer said.

He also said that another project, "the Anaposta", was initiated under the search engine project.

"Under this project, all of our 70 million citizens will be given an e-mail address with a quota of 10 gigabytes. Every child will have an e-mail address written on his/her identity card since birth. So, will have a mobile network that can be used thanks to id number match and foreign networks, such as Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, will not be used anymore," he stated.

Software infrastructure of the project has been completed and it is now being tested, Acarer added.

Reuters