China must speed the development of the latest version of its Internet protocol and applications to catch up with the United States, Japan and other prominent economies, industry experts said on Tuesday.

The latest version, Internet Protocol version 6, was devised to provide more Web addresses and a safer network. It will replace the country's current Internet Protocol version 4, which is quickly running out of addresses.

"Chinese carriers such as China Mobile and China Unicom must work hard to develop the IPv6 network", said Latif Ladid, president of an IPv6 forum that was held in Beijing on Tuesday.