Estonia will be the first in the world to give voters the right to cast ballots using mobile telephones.

Parliament has voted for a law allowing "m-voting" from 2011. Liia Hanni, programme director at the Estonian e-Governance Academy Foundation, told AFP said that "the system that allows people to take part in elections using their mobile phones is completely safe".

M-voters will only be allowed to use telephones provided with certified SIM cards. These will enable the person's identity to be verified before they can access a secret electronic voting system.

Estonia is one of the first to use Internet voting.