The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made the plea in a lengthy report sent to the US Department of Commerce.

The report will be the focus of a meeting to consider ICANN’s progress on objectives the US government set it in preparation for independence.

ICANN argues these objectives have been achieved earlier than planned and now is the time to decide what happens next.

Paul Twomey, president of ICANN, told the BBC news website that the process of meeting the objectives was “essentially complete”.

The Joint Project Agreement between the United States government and ICANN will have a mid-term review in March. As part of this review, the US government put out a Notice of Inquiry asking for comments on the continued transition to the private sector of the technical coordination and management of the Internet’s domain name and addressing system (DNS). ICANN has responded to this call with several documents: a section in their Annual Report; a letter of submission; and a table of achievements.

You can review the progress ICANN has made on each of the 10 responsibilities in the JPA individually on pages 12 to 18 of the Annual Report. The seven-page submission letter [pdf] outlines the Board’s position that it has met fully its obligations and responsibilities.

On the other hand, Milton Mueller argues on the Internet Governance Project blog that ICANN has not met it’s obligations, particularly with regard to transparency.