China has ordered telecom operators to clean up the content of spam short messages spread on their mobile phone networks as part of an ongoing fight against "unhealthy" influences.

"Recently, there has been a lot of dirt hidden in the telecommunication networks. The situation is serious," the ministry of information industry said in a notice on its website Friday.

Messages containing text or pictures with pornographic or superstitious content such as fortune telling and sex chat are frequently sent to mobile phone users en masse, the ministry said.

This is in breach of national regulations that ban the production and spreading of such content, which has "polluted the society and spread very bad influence," it said.

Throughout October, the ministry will check telecom companies for compliance and will prosecute those that breach the rules, Beijing News reported.

China has more than 100 million Internet users and some 358 million mobile phone users, with both areas growing rapidly as the country's economy booms.

The government's latest move signifies a step-up in its campaign to rein in the spread of information outside official media, such as via mobile phones and the Internet, which it fears could cause unrest.

A set of revised Internet rules was issued last month that requires Internet operators to re-register their news sites and police them for content that could "endanger state security" and "social order."

They target sites that publish fabricated information or pornography and forbid content that "harms national security, reveals state secrets, subverts political power, (and) undermines national unity," state media said.

(China Daily October 9, 2005)