Internet auctioneer eBay's Chinese website has deleted posts of banned satellite TV dishes after a crackdown on the illegal equipment used to view foreign programs.

"Our technical team has worked quickly to delete those unlawful items from our Web site," Huang Lei, a PR official of eBay China said on Friday.

Only six matches were flagged up after typing in "satellite dish" as the key words on the website's search engine and most were irrelevant.

"Any items that violate our user agreement and Chinese law are prohibited from our site," she said.

Local authorities have launched a month-long hunt for illegal satellite dishes that can receive foreign programs.

The Beijing Anti-Pornography and Anti-Piracy Office will target the production, distribution and installation of unauthorized satellite dishes and individuals will be fined up to 5,000 yuan (US$625) for installing a satellite dish.

But adverts for satellite dishes were still up and running on Internet auction sites including eBay.com.cn after the campaign's launch had been announced.

According to the eBay user agreement, satellite and cable TV descramblers, drugs, animals and wildlife products are prohibited from being sold online.

"The technical team works with two approaches: a system that filters items by picking out key words that indicate they are prohibited and real-time monitoring of the site to find prohibited items that are left out by filtering," Huang said.

China's regulation on satellite dishes issued in 1993 prohibits individuals or work units from setting up satellite dishes to receive foreign programs.

Satellite dishes are legally allowed only in hotels above three stars, office buildings and apartments that are designed for foreigners.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)