zone begins with number

[Phil Mansfield]

I currently run Bind 9 on my external dns servers.  I need to create a
zone that begins with a number.  Unfortunately, Bind9 does not allow me
to do this in the current configuration.  Upon attempting to create, I
get a message that says "Poor DNS Name" and it lets me go no further.
One need only go so far as www.3com.com <http://www.3com.com/>  to see
that you can in fact make them.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.