South Korea has been officially recognized as the world's number-one nation in information and communications development by a major gathering of industry experts in Tunisia.

The International Telecommunication Union, which convened the second phase of its World Summit on the Information Society Wednesday, ranked South Korea atop the Digital Opportunity Index.

Of the 40 countries and territories surveyed, Hong Kong was ranked second, Japan third, the U.S. eleventh, Germany 16th, France 20th and India dead last.

The index analyzes infrastructure penetration and the degree of digital opportunity and utilization to evaluate a country's information and communications development.

In the 2003 version of the union's Digital Access Index, South Korea ranked fourth out of 178 countries.