Microsofts Office Open XML, a format for interchangeable Web documents, was approved by 24 of 32 countries in a core group of nations in a ballot by the International Organization for Standardization, according to the document. Approval by the Geneva standards-setting body, which is known by its French acronym, I.S.O., is almost certain to influence software spending by governments and large companies.

The tally reverses Microsofts loss in first-round voting before the full 87-nation panel in September in a process that has been marked on both sides by heavy-handed lobbying of members of national standards committees, typically made up of technicians, engineers and bureaucrats.

"This has been a remarkable process, involving literally thousands of technical experts, technology consumers, and governments in 87 countries, whose input has helped to improve" the document format, Microsoft said Monday in a statement that did not mention the results.

In the final round of voting, which ended Saturday, three-quarters of the core members, including Britain, Japan, Germany and Switzerland, supported Microsofts standard, called Ooxml, according to the results document. Of the 87 nations total national votes, 10 opposed the standard, including Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, New Zealand, South Africa and Venezuela.

Under organization rules, at least 66 percent of core group members must accept a standard for it to be approved, and no more than 25 percent of all voting nations can oppose it.

Roger Frost, an I.S.O. spokesman in Geneva, would not confirm on Tuesday whether Microsofts format had been designated as meeting the organizations standard, saying the organization would disclose the vote on Wednesday after informing its membership. The International Herald Tribune obtained the results from one of the member delegations contacted by the I.S.O.

Microsofts request for fast-track approval of its Ooxml standard in early 2007 unleashed an intense lobbying campaign by International Business Machines and Sun Microsystems, which helped develop a rival interchangeable document format called Open Document Format.

O.D.F. was the first interchangeable document format to receive I.S.O. approval in 2006, and its backers used the exclusive I.S.O. endorsement to pitch the technology to governments and large companies. O.D.F. is now being considered for use by 70 nations.

Controversy over the approval process continued into this week.

On Monday, the chairman of an advisory committee to the voting body, Steve Pepper, asked the I.S.O. to suspend Norways vote to approve Ooxml until an internal investigation could take place, saying the ballot cast did not reflect the interests of his group. "The vast majority of people were against this," Mr. Pepper said.

Ivar Jachwitz, the deputy managing director of Standards Norway, the countrys national standards organization and the person who ultimately submitted Norways "yes" vote for Ooxml, disputed Mr. Peppers assertion that most people involved in Norways voting process had opposed Ooxml.

"We had an initial vote back in 2007 of nearly 50 people and the vast majority were in favor," Mr. Jachwitz said. He did acknowledge that 21 members of the group last week submitted a letter asking for Norway to oppose Ooxml. "Our vote reflected the majority opinion," Mr. Jachwitz said. "I do not see that it was improper."

Mr. Frost said he had received Mr. Peppers complaint, but upon investigation considered the Norwegian dispute to be an internal matter. "We have received background information from them and have no reason to question the validity of their vote," Mr. Frost said.

In Malaysia, which abstained on Ooxml, members of the countrys voting delegation barred uninvited employees of Microsoft and I.B.M. from participating in their deliberations. Sweden nullified its support of the standard last year after one member of its delegation reportedly voted twice.

And some members of Germanys delegation complained that I.S.O. rules had not been properly followed and a steering committee of the countrys national standards group, called D.I.N., was called in to rule on whether rules had been followed properly. In the end, the D.I.N. decided to submit no formal second vote to I.S.O., which allowed Germanys initial approval to stand, according to Jan Dittberner, a spokesman for D.I.N.

Demands for speedy approval of Microsofts 6,000-page document sparked objections from many I.S.O. members, who felt the organization was being pressured by Microsoft, whose Office application suite is the standard on more than 90 percent of computers and archives around the world, according to International Data Corporation, a research group in Framingham, Mass.

Contention over the outcome even influenced the remarks of representatives of countries that abstained from the vote, like the Netherlands. "This is like someone with six shopping carts of food trying to go through the express lane at a supermarket," said Michiel Leenaars, a member of the Dutch voting delegation. "The end result of this will be confusion. The standard is simply too big. There are still a lot of questions out there."

(N.Y.Times)