High speed cable and digital line subscribers form 10.7 percent of Internet users, against 7.4 percent in 2002, the ITU said in its "Birth of Broadband" report.

South Korea is the leading market for broadband, with 21 subscribers for every 100 inhabitants, more than twice as many as third placed Canada (11), the report said.

Hong Kong ranks second in the world for high speed internet use, with 15 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

The report indicated that broadband access, which allows faster and higher capacity Internet connections, may help fuel consumer spending on communications technology.

ITU argued that high speed connections provide "greater access at lower cost" to the consumer, but it also admitted that some economies are struggling with the high fixed costs of setting up a broadband network.

"While broadband is accelerating the integration of the Internet into our daily lives, it is not a major industry driver in the same way that mobile cellular (phones) and the Internet were in the 1990s," Tim Kelly, head of the ITU Policy and Strategy Unit said.

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