According to the regulation issued by the ministry of information industry on administration of Internet broadcasting bulletin system (BBS), all system users would be responsible for information released on the Websites.

It stipulates that no one can release the system information that is against the national constitution, endangers state security, reveals state secrets, sabotages unity among ethnic groups and spreads heretical ideas, pornography, violence or other information banned by existing laws.

"If BBS owners discover banned information in their news releases, they are required to delete them immediately", it said adding violators will be punished.

It said applications should be filed for running BBS business to the ministry or the provincial level telecommunications administration departments, Xinhua News Agency said.

Meanwhile, the information office of the state council (China's cabinet) and the ministry jointly issued a regulation on administration of news Websites.

The regulation listed terms Websites should observe and the penalties for their violation. By the end of last year, China had a total of 15,153 Websites, 700 of which were news-related.

The number of China's Internet users has increased by 100 per cent every six months for the last two years, from 620,000 in 1997 to 8.9 million by 1999.