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WASHINGTON — A proposal to create hundreds of new Internet domain names as alternatives to ".com" has suffered a setback as a key U.S. government agency warned that the plan might not benefit consumers or promote competition.

The Internet's key oversight body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, had planned to start accepting bids for new Internet suffixes early next year in what would be the first major overhaul of a decades-old addressing system.

But in a letter sent to ICANN last week, a top Commerce Department official, Meredith Baker, said it wasn't clear "whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs." Baker heads the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Her letter argues that before introducing new domain names, ICANN needs to ensure that the plan would not jeopardize the stability and security of the Internet addressing system. And it says ICANN needs to examine whether companies operating the new domain-name registries would have too much market power.

ICANN handles administration of the domain-name system under a contract with the U.S. government.

Michael Palage, an adjunct fellow with the free-market think tank Progress & Freedom Foundation, said consumer protection is a top concern of trademark holders, including many big corporations, which often buy up several Internet addresses containing their company names to safeguard their brands, avoid consumer confusion and head off cyber-squatters, phishing attacks and fraud.

In June, ICANN approved new guidelines to make it easier for organizations and groups to propose and obtain new suffixes that could cover locations such as ".nyc" and ".berlin" or industries such as ".bank."

ICANN did not respond to a request for comment.