China on Thursday accused Google's English language search engine of spreading obscene content that violated the nation's law, less than 24 hours after disruptions to the company's search engines and other services within China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang did not directly say whether official action was behind the disruptions, but he made plain the government's anger and said punishment measures taken against Google were lawful.

According to complaints from many residents, Google's English language search engine has spread large amounts of vulgar content that is lascivious and pornographic, seriously violating China's relevant laws and regulations, he told a regularly scheduled news conference.

I want to stress that Google China is a company operating within China to provide Internet search services, and it should strictly abide by Chinese laws and regulations, he said.

A spokesman for Google in China declined to comment.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials urged Beijing to abandon plans for applying filtering software Green Dam on every new computer since July 1.

China says the Green Dam filtering software is to protect children from illegal images and insists the deadline of July 1 for new computers to be sold with the software will not change.

China Google