Kuala Lumpur: The Government will not impose any censorship on the Internet although most Malaysian surfers tend to visit sex-related web sites, Deputy Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho, said yesterday.

He said the Government was firm in its decision not to censor the Internet. "The freedom on the Net is assured," he said. Tan said there was no law barring anyone from visiting such websites.

He was commenting on a news report which stated that sex topped the search list on Catcha.com among Malaysian and Singaporean net surfers.

Lycos Asia, which runs country-specific search engines, also found that sex was the number one search term in Philipines, India, and Hong Kong sites.

Catcha.com is South-East Asia's leading online media services company with about 1.15 million members, of which 500 000 are Malaysians. The age of its users ranges from 20 to 35.

Tan advised younger Internet users to practise self -censorship, self-discipline and self-education while surfing the Net.

One should make use of the access to information to the best purpose and not abuse it, he told reporters at a recycling booth set up by Xim Phou Moon Welfare Society in Cheras to collect used clothes, old newspapers, magazines, toys and bottles to raise fund for three million flood victims in Vietnam and Cambodia.

On the setting up of rural Internet centres, Tan said two more would be set up by the end of this year. For next year, the ministry planned to set up 200 more withinthe year in a move to narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas.

The centres would be set up nationwide and would be located even in new villages and remote fishing villages, he said.