Facebook, the popular social networking Internet site, has targeted the world's second-largest Internet market, registering a local Web address in China.

Facebook has yet to say when it might offer a local-language service for the China market, but it already boasts more than 100,000 members in its English-language China network as well as alumni groups for the country's top universities, including Peking University and Fudan University.

The move also appears to be aimed at warding off the potential copyright tussles that have dogged Google in the fast-growing market.

Facebook.cn is registered by U.S.-based Facebook Inc, according to search results on Wednesday on government-backed China Internet Network Information Centre's Web site www.cnnic.com.cn.

The domain name facebook.com.cn, meanwhile, has been registered -- to an individual working at a local Internet service provider -- but the Web address redirects to Facebook's main page www.facebook.com when entered into a Web browser.