NEW DELHI/DUBAI, Aug 5 (Agencies): BlackBerry maker Research In Motion may make concessions to Kuwait and India after their governments voiced concerns about the smartphone as a security threat, newspapers said yesterday. India's Economic Times newspaper reported that RIM had agreed to allow security authorities in the country to monitor BlackBerry services after pressure from governments worried about national security.

Separately Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida, quoting a source it did not identify by name, said RIM had given "initial approval" to block 3,000 porn sites at the request of Kuwait's communications ministry. It said the Canadian manufacturer asked the ministry to give it until the end of the year to implement the block. The Al-Jarida report said security was also part of the Kuwaiti negotiations. It said Kuwait was working with RIM and local telecom companies to reach a set of "legal controls that would guarantee national security on the one hand, and the rights of citizens ...to use the device's services on the other".

The two reports follow the announcement on Sunday that the United Arab Emirates would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from Oct 11 unless it could access encrypted messages. RIM has declined to comment on the newspaper reports or on the reports of a UAE ban, but said on Monday in a statement it would respect both customers and governments. "RIM does not disclose confidential regulatory discussions that take place with any government," it said, without elaborating.

The Ontario-based company said it is keen to clear the air before yesterday's launch of a new BlackBerry dubbed its "iPhone killer". Unlike rivals Nokia and iPhone maker Apple, RIM controls its own networks which handle encrypted messages through centres in Canada and the UK. That has made the BlackBerry popular as a secure way to communicate, but has worried governments.

The Economic Times, citing internal government documents, said RIM has offered to share with Indian security agencies its technical codes for corporate email services, open up access to all consumer emails within 15 days and also develop tools in six to eight months to allow monitoring of chats. An Indian government source could not confirm or deny the details in the newspaper but told Reuters the company and security agencies were discussing several options and a deal would be reached soon. "We hope to fi
nd a solution by this month end," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Saudi Arabia has also asked service providers to cut off Messenger, industry sources told Reuters. Bahrain in April warned against using Messenger to distribute news. The United States weighed in on the matter on Monday and said the UAE was setting a dangerous precedent in limiting freedom of information. But the UAE says it wants nothing more than what other nations have negotiated and notes it only announced plans for a ban after three years of attempts to work out a compromise.

It's about what we think is an important element of democracy, human rights, and freedom of information and the flow of information in the 21st century," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "It's an argument that we make to countries like Iran and China. And it's also an argument that we make to friends and allies of ours like the UAE," Crowley said, calling it a "dangerous precedent".

Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to Washington, issued a sharp email response to the news media. "The State Department's comments today on the UAE's announcement to suspend certain Blackberry services from October 11 are disappointing and contradict the US government's own approach to telecommunications regulation," he said. "In fact, the UAE is asking for exactly the same regulatory compliance - and with the same principles of judicial and regulatory oversight - that Blackberry grants the US and other
governments and nothing more.

Under US law, for example, authorities can use a subpoena to gain access to telecommunications data and Britain has similar rules. RIM has refused to discuss the details of its pacts with individual governments. "It is troublesome to think that RIM is already complying with US and UK regulatory requirements which are virtually the same as those in the UAE," said a UAE source familiar with the matter. "So it begs the question why treat the UAE differently?

Theodore Karasik, a security analyst at Dubai-based firm INEGMA, said there were real security concerns at stake. "Some in the Dubai/UAE bashing crowd will say this is a freedom of speech issue ... but some would say the UAE brought this up at the height of threat awareness here. There are several security issues here - Iran, Yemen, Al-Qaeda - that they could be worried about," he told Reuters. "Everyone wants to get their security access. The UAE is acting as a bellwether for other countries on this," he
said.

In addition to security threats, the UAE has tracked several money laundering incidents, including a plot to defraud the central bank of �7.2 billion ($10.17 billion). The UAE, Saudi Arabia and India represent more than 2 million BlackBerry users, or about 5 percent of the 41 million devices in service worldwide. BlackBerry users in the UAE yesterday were offered iPhones and other handsets by service providers keen to hold on to some 500,000 customers in the Gulf Arab nation. Top provider Emirates Telecomm
unications Corp (Etisalat) offered free devices to customers affected by the ban.

But BlackBerry users in Dubai yesterday panned the decision to suspend key services, saying it would be bad for business and the UAE's image. There are roughly 500,000 users of the phone in the UAE, out of a population of about six million. "It's gonna cause a lot of problems if they do actually cut off the services, said Zubair, a 28-year-old Briton who works in finance, adding that he was "very shocked" by the UAE's Sunday announcement. He noted that email on BlackBerry is important for many businesses,
and said that the suspension will "probably cause a lot of disturbance in the (stock) market" if it goes forward. Using a BlackBerry "is a very big part of my life," he said, adding that he uses one to "receive emails at the right time from clients - even just to keep me in touch with the market.

The suspension of the services is "gonna be a massive problem for me, as far as my company's concerned," said Lauren, 30, an events manager originally from France. "We're working with BlackBerrys every day," she said. "Although we're based in Dubai, we're working around the Middle East and North Africa. It's gonna be a massive change." Daniel, 26, from Holland, said the suspension would be bad for the UAE's image."If you look in the world, people don't always have the best image of the Middle East," claimed Daniel, who works in marketing. "If they start doing this kind of thing, it will hurt the image of Dubai and the UAE and the Middle East.

I think it's a pretty retrograde step, given the benefits" of BlackBerry technology, said 25-year-old Australian, Shane, who works in retail. "At a personal level, but also at a business level, it's not going to be particularly helpful for the country," he said. "I'm hoping that common sense prevails," Shane said. "I suspect something will be done, because so many people... are on BlackBerry, it's gonna be untenable" to suspend the services.

Andy, a 40-year-old Briton who works in information technology, said he uses his BlackBerry "constantly - it's a lifeline". "I don't think it's a good idea" for the UAE to suspend the services, he said, adding that the country was "overreacting" in doing so. But he also expressed doubt that the suspension will actually go into effect. "I don't think it'll happen, to be honest, I mean, they're just putting pressure on RIM," he said.

Etisalat yesterday announced options for BlackBerry users who were registered by July 31, including signing a new contract and receiving a non-BlackBerry smartphone. Du, the UAE's other major telecom provider, said on its website that BlackBerry customers will still be able to browse the web using the company's browser, and that "applications which do not use BlackBerry services will also not be affected.

Even if the government was able to track BlackBerry messages, users in the UAE were unlikely to stop using the devices, said Daegal Godinho, administrator of IT operations at Union Properties in Dubai. "Everything else that you do is already being monitored by the government in some way, or the other. So this would not be something new," said Godinho, who also looks after BlackBerry administration for his company. "Given that most of the big companies here are in any case local, or tied up with the government in some way, I don't think it would make any difference in this part of the world," he said. -