China shut down another 84 websites on Wednesday for containing "pornographic and lewd content", bringing the total number of blocked sites in the month-long campaign against such sites to 175.

The Special Operation Office for the Crackdown on Online Porn and Lewd Content said in a statement that government departments would step up efforts to continue to close illegal websites and "severe penalties" would be meted out to those who violated the law.

The campaign was launched on January 5 by the State Council's Information Office, the public security and culture ministries and four other government agencies.

Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China. Previously, the country had blacklisted 50 websites, including search engines Google, Baidu and MSN China, which were accused of providing obscene content and of being slow to delete erotic materials.

China's Internet users hit 298 million in 2008, overtaking the United States as the nation with the world's largest online population, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2009)