China's campaign against online pornography is far from over, an official said in Beijing on Tuesday.

"China will continue to hunt down online pornography," said Li Baozhong, deputy director of the office in charge of China's campaign against pornographic and illegal publications. "The successes we achieved at the beginning of 2007 have not dulled our appetite."

"Over 200 million harmful online messages and 4,000 pornographic messages have been deleted so far this year. Pornographic websites have been blocked 10,000 times," he said in an interview with Xinhua.

Li said the government would maintain its campaign against illegal publications, banning street sales and preventing them from spreading to the internet.

He referred to the current fashion among teenagers for "Death Note" horror fiction, pointing out that China had launched a nationwide crackdown on "illegal terrifying publications" such as "Death Note" in May.

"Death Note", a type of horror tale containing elements of mystery, death and revenge that has been banned from bookshelves, is popular among primary school students. But experts say they are harmful to children's psychological development.

Horror fiction has become harder to find on the street since May but internet advertising and sales have shot up.

The government will continue its campaign against the spread of this type of fiction on the internet.

Source: Xinhua