Saudi Arabia announces Blackberry messenger deadline

Saudi Arabia's telecoms watchdog has called on telecoms firms in the country to block the messenger function on Blackberry handsets from Friday. The watchdog said the ban would last until the state's three mobile phone operators "fulfil the regulatory requirements it has requested."

But the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) did not reveal what these requirements were.

The United Arab Emirates threatened on Sunday to ban some Blackberry services.

The two Gulf states have announced the bans on some functions of the Blackberry mobile phone, claiming security concerns. The United Arab Emirates wants to block sending e-mails, accessing the internet, and delivering instant messages to other Blackberry handsets.

Saudi Arabia had previously announced it was to prevent the use of the Blackberry-to-Blackberry instant messaging service.

Both nations are unhappy that they are unable to monitor such communications via the handsets.

This is because the Blackberry handsets automatically send the encrypted data to computer servers outside the two countries.